

Roulette beater spills physics behind victory - bufo
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428644.500-roulette-beater-spills-physics-behind-victory.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

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Luc
Actually getting access to a European roulette wheel (comparable in quality to
what is in use in casinos) seems the hard part to me. I ended up buying a 70's
wheel, but I don't feel my measurements on this antique are good enough to
start betting real money.

One manufacturer told me they only sold to accredited casinos, and these had
to return the wheels to them at the end of their useful life. Not sure if he
was just playing me or if they were actively trying to keep the wheels away
from roulette-hackers.

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aquateen
Probably true. When I asked a blackjack dealer why they didn't have automatic
shufflers, she mentioned the shufflers aren't purchased, they're leased.

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jawngee
They're leased because of patents. The manufacturer makes way more money
leasing then selling.

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jk4930
You can do this even without a computer. There are two approaches that still
work (i.e., that don't focus on biased wheels, as the casinos fixed that bug
since years): Wheel watching and distance counting. The first lets you watch
the rhythm of the croupier when he spins the wheel and the ball. The second
just lets you count the distance between the results in the wheel. The first
works way better, but requires much more training.

But I guarantee you: This kind of work is mind-numbing. I did this for a while
in 1999 and let it go, members of our group continued with it over years and
really suffered from the boredom. The same with gaming the slot machines (they
have certain regularities or bugs, depending on the model) or poker and other
games. So if you're a hacker, the challenge and fun wears off pretty quick and
you wish you had a cubicle job instead.

Anyway, there are books from the mathematician and physicist Pierre Basieux,
unfortunately only in German.

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metaxyy
Last month, I was having lunch with my friend, John Boyd, and he came out with
this incredible story about using computers to beat roulette in Vegas back in
the 70's. He was part of Doyne Farmer's original team from UCSC, and
apparently plays a reasonably big role in the book. I've known him for ten
years, and he never bothered to mention it. I was so riveted that I made
myself late for class plying him for more details. I'm sending him this link
now; I'm sure he'll enjoy it.

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forinti
The Newtonian Casino is a book that tells Farmer's story. It is fascinating
and I've read it twice: [http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Newtonian-Casino-Thomas-
Bass/dp/...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Newtonian-Casino-Thomas-
Bass/dp/0582057523)

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msg
It has a different title in the US, which was where I read it. Agreed, it's a
great book.

<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie>

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mikecane
And "The Predictors" follows the further adventures of Farmer, et al, and is
worth a read too.

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jgrahamc
Also interesting is the book "Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and
Mathematical Modeling to Win" which talks about one man's quest to beat the
odds at Jai alai (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_alai>) by modeling the
game and the players. It's a fun, humorous and technical book.

[http://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-
Mat...](http://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-
Mathematical/dp/0521009626)

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Dn_Ab
_In the 1970s, Doyne Farmer, then a graduate student, used the world's first
wearable computer to beat roulette tables in Nevada, but never revealed how he
did it._

Wait, I thought Claude Shannon with some help from Ed Thorpe were the first to
build a wearable computer back in the 60's. Also to beat roulette. They
shelved it though, because there were too many practical difficulties and
there were better ways to make money - the stock market.

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tjic
I read about this years ago in The Eudaemonic Pie, I believe.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Eudaemonic-Pie-Thomas-
Bass/dp/0595...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Eudaemonic-Pie-Thomas-
Bass/dp/0595142362)

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tocomment
Is this legal? What happens if you get caught using a smart phone to do this?
(BTW this would be a cool iPhone app for someone to make)

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scott_s
It's not illegal, but it's against the rules of the casino, and you will be
thrown out. (And probably banned.)

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waterlesscloud
Didn't casinos used to frown on camera use? It's hopeless now that everyone
has a camera with them all the time, but I thought I'd heard way back that
cameras and casinos didn't get along.

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RobAtticus
In my experience, if you're near the actual gaming, they won't let you use a
camera (with exceptions). If you're taking pictures of craps tables or
something that are currently shut down, you can probably get away with it.

Also cellphone rules are pretty restrictive, so even camera phones would
probably get you a reprimand.

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planetguy
It's no surprise that it should be possible to predict the trajectory of a
roulette ball with today's technology, but doing it back in 1970 is seriously
impressive.

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baq
just remember what kind of a computer got astrounauts to the moon back then.

that's impressive.

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DanBC
Those computers didn't have to fit in a shoe!

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planetguy
And they weren't built by "some dude" in his spare time.

