Why didn't MIT teams play in Atlantic City

[jimbiggs]

I just finished Bringing Down the House and I wasn't surprised that most of their play was in Las Vegas, but with the team residing in Boston, can anyone tell me why they didn't play in Atlantic City? Is it true that counters cannot be barred in Atlantic City?

 

[zengrifter]

I just finished Bringing Down the House and I wasn't surprised that most of their play was in Las Vegas, but with the team residing in Boston, can anyone tell me why they didn't play in Atlantic City? Is it true that counters cannot be barred in Atlantic City?

Mezrich's book was only a chapter from the MIT Team - that team has been going for two decades.

They did play AC occaisionally and still do, but the games are not as good. zg

 

[BlackjackRebel]

I can't be sure of this since I certainly never went to MIT but here is a fairly good guess. It is correct that AC has had court rulings that prevent casinos from barring (or trespassing) identified card counters. Because they do not have that ability, their counter-measures to thwart card counters are much more pronounced than those you would encounter in areas that have the ability to trespass card counters. Almost everything is a shoe game and large amounts of the cards in the shoe are cut out of play. Betting spreads are likely to be limited by making the difference less between minimum and maximun bets. Lots of cards that don't get played and limited betting spreads are a counter's nightmare. I am sure there are some other things they can do to limit the impact of counting short of barring and if they can do it, you can bet that they will do it.