The oldest freestanding bar in Vegas is Atomic Liquors, built in 1952, back when you could climb onto the roof and watch atomic bombs explode at desert test sites 60 miles away. If you sit long enough at its expansive bar, chances are Kent Johns will pull up a stool next to you and tell you about it.
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“My name is Edward Thorp.”
“My name is Edward Thorp.”
“My name is Edward Thorp.”
It’s 1964 and Edward Thorp is on the television game show To Tell The Truth, sitting alongside two other well-dressed men also claiming to be Edward Thorp, a man so adept at card counting that he’d been barred from Las Vegas casinos. Thorp, the quiet man on the right, every bit the mathematics professor with black-rimmed glasses and close-cropped hair, is the real deal.
Two years earlier, Thorp’s book, Beat the Dealer, was published, explaining the system for winning at blackjack he developed based on the mathematical theory of probability. The system worked so well that Las Vegas casinos actually changed the rules of blackjack to give the dealer an added advantage. Those changes would prove to be short-lived, but Thorp’s book would go on to become a massive bestseller, and remains a key guide to the game of blackjack to this day.
That all this happened as the computer age was flourishing in the 1960s isn’t coincidental. While working to beat the house, Thorp was also working at one of the hotbeds of that revolution: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, he had access to two things that would prove invaluable to his research. One was the room-filling IBM 704 computer, without which, he writes in Beat the Dealer, “the analysis on which this book is based would have been impossible.”
Got a few minutes to spare? Then don’t check out Salty Bet, because it will take those minutes and turn them into hours of lost time. Salty Bet runs an endless livestream of computer-controlled matches on M.U.G.E.N., a free and highly customizable fighting game. It has a massive stable of characters from various fighting franchises and then some. Seriously I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a match between a Betamax tape and my neighbor’s dog.
Yep, that’s Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Z, and he’s up against Shadowcat from Marvel Comics. So far I’ve seen Kuchiki Byakuya of Bleach, Rikuo of Darkstalkers, Jill Valentine and some robot that just turned into a rocket ship and flew away. And it didn’t come back. Seriously this game is nuts. Don’t believe me? Here you go:
Salty Bet is free to join. If you sign up, you get virtual currency, which can only be used to bet on the matches. It has no other value or purpose. The real benefit of becoming a member is that you can join the website’s chat, which is half of what makes Salty Bet such an addictive time waster because the folks there are as freaked out about the matches as you are.
Salty Bet also has a paid membership with a few fringe perks, but trust me you can lose hours just lurking on the site. The game is hilariously bizarre and unbalanced and the folks on the chat are funny, although their language is indeed salty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to watch Shuma-Gorath lay the smack down on Link.
[via Pocket Tactics]
So I have to admit I’m a bit of a gambler. Not that I play all the time, but when I’m in Vegas, all bets are on. And even know I know the odds are dramatically stacked against me, I occasionally still play the slots. Now here’s a slot machine that I’d definitely pump some quarters into (if you still pumped quarters into slot machines.)
This rare “Limited Heisenberg Edition Breaking Bad Slot Machine” turned up recently over on Etsy, and according to its seller, it’s one of just five ever made.
It offers special reels which portray characters from the show (as well as the winnebago meth lab), and has sound samples from the show when you win. Yes, it says things like “I am the one who knocks” and “Say my name.” Though it doesn’t say anything about taking a trip to Belize. And if you get three Saul Goodmans, he’ll bail you out with free spins.
Check it out in action in the short video clip below:
My favorite part is how it plays the theme music when you open the front of the machine. I’m going to guess this isn’t officially licensed Breaking Bad merch, so if you want it, you might want to move quick. Besides the fact, there’s only five of them in existence. It’s available up on HeisenbergLabs’ Etsy shop for $1299 (USD), plus another $199 for shipping in the U.S.
Australia’s biggest casino was taken for $33 million, when its own security cameras were used against it by a high-roller who managed to hijack the surveillance systems. More »
If you thought Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man character took a cold, calculating approach to gambling, he’s got nothing on Yaskawa Motoman Robotics’ new SDA10F blackjack dealing robot. Using a sophisticated vision system it’s even able to recognize the cards it’s dealing, so casinos could still use their standard Bicycle decks. More »
Yesterday, Nevada officials rushed through a bill which makes interstate online poker legal. The decision will allow the state to form pacts with other states, allowing people to play legally across borders. More »
Zynga has finally stopped lobbying for real-money online gambling and done something about it: the Wall Street Journal reports that it’s submitted preparatory paperwork in Nevada that could see online gambling law change for good. More »
Maybe you know a little about Blackjack, like doubling on 11 or splitting 8’s. Maybe you know nothing. But definitely you can know more. With this iOS app, Blackjack Domination, you can learn about all the odds, discover strategies, figure out how to count cards and beat the house. More »
Unsurprisingly, Zynga is keen to move away from in-game purchases and towards in-game betting. So keen, in fact, that it’s been spending upwards of $75,000 on lobbying policy makers over online gambling, reports The Wall Street Journal. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
