MIT Blackjack Team

Students from the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other top colleges made up the MIT Blackjack Team.

Bill Kaplan led the Group

After reading books about card counting, Bill Kaplan, a Harvard graduate with an interest in Blackjack, led the Group.

Although he was not the original founder of MIT’s Blackjack Team, he helped turn it into a profitable venture.

JP Massar

Massar (also known as Mr M ) attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a mathematics student. He became interested in gambling after reading the book ” How to Gamble if you must “. He and a few classmates formed the first MIT Blackjack team. While they had a few wins, they were not incredibly successful.

Teaming up

A restaurant was where JP Massar and Bill Kaplan first met, and JP Massar asked Bill Kaplan to join his team to observe its mistakes. Bill Kaplan joined them after spending a weekend in Las Vegas observing the mistakes the team made.

A formal card counting system and betting system were put in place to become a serious business. On 1 August 1980, the brand new MIT Blackjack team began operating.

For ten years, this team was successful, and investors received excellent returns. But eventually, Bill Kaplan’s management of the team was indefinitely suspended because he was banned from most casinos in Vegas.

A second Blackjack card-counting team, formed by JP Massar and Johnny Chang, was successful for two years, but they too were also forced to shut down as the casinos on the Las Vegas strip and other towns became aware of their tactics and banned them.

What are they doing now?

While JP Massar still plays professional poker online and offline, Bill Kaplan now operates a Real Estate business and runs an emailing solution company.