From: jfr@redbrick.com (Jon Rosen)
Subject: Re: roulette system ad from Eugene Shekhtman
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 06:26:15 GMT

In article <1992Jul20.144652.9083@ll.mit.edu> yasu@ll.mit.edu (Alan Yasutovich) writes:
>In an article of July 14, 1992 tooraj@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au (Tooraj
>Enayati) writes:
>
>>>I have a book written by some guy who claims to have beaten the roulette
>>>by using a computer that he wore on his body into the casino.  He even
>>>gives the source code of the program that he used.  Although this has
>>>nothing to do with mechanical imperfections of the roulette set up,
>>>you might still be interested.
>>...
>>If you find the book could you post name of the authur, the book, and 
>>the publisher so I go in search of the book.
>
>I found it!  Here it is:
>"THE ROMEO PROJECT: A Mechanical Analysis of Casino Roulette, Including a
>Program for a Popular Pocket Computer That WINS!!".  By: Y. Gambol. 
>Published by: Exotic Engineering Systems, P.O.Box 582, Paramus, New
>Jersey 07653, USA.
>The book was published in 1986, and considering its age, its sort of
>'underground' look, and the fact that the author (it appears) wants to
>remain anonymous, it may be hard to find.
>[how he got the book munched]
>   Like I wrote before, I don't believe in it, either. In my opinion, it
>might work in a perfect world, but in a real casino one's advantage would
>probably be eliminated due to a multitude of unforeseeable factors.
>  Anyway, if this Evgeny doesn't respond in a few more days, I can send
>it to you, if you are still interested.

  Actually, this is not true.  Several other studies have been done on
  this subject both with respect to biased wheels and with respect to
  predicting the drop of the ball.  One major study was done by Ed Thorpe
  (author of the original Beat the Dealer) and he delivered a paper at
  an international conference on gaming.

  In any case, it is quite obvious that if you can either (1) detect a
  bias of greater than 6% predictability or (2) discover a way of 
  ruling out at least 3 pockets on the wheel for any given spin (with
  close to 99% accuracy), you can significantly alter the casino edge
  from the 5.26% against you to something like .5% for you.  Since
  roulette is an absolutely fixed odds game (with the exception of the
  "top 5" bet which is more in favor of the house than all the others),
  any edge you regain over the casino means that on EVERY BET, you will
  average a positive expectation in the long run.  Since there is NO
  casino game that exists with a positive player expectation on EVERY 
  BET (blackjack has a variable expectation on every bet based on the
  play of the previous cards), this is fantastic.

  In the normal $1-$500 limit roulette wheel, the action is very slow.
  You may place bets right up until the ball starts to fall into the
  wheel well.  In practice "LV Night" situations, I have placed up to
  25 single number bets before bets were frozen.  

  The problem, obviously is, WHICH NUMBERS DO I LEAVE OUT?  The
  use of a computer which takes the speed of the ball as an input
  and calculates the high percentage numbers and the low percentage
  numbers makes it easy to be accurate.  The problem is getting
  the numbers back out and fast enough to useful for betting.  A
  foot sensor assembly gives you feedback "at your toes" so to
  speak.  You can then place the 20-25 mots likely numbers and
  pray.  You should be winning at a good clip with this sceme.

  The final problem is that under LV law, the use of a computer
  in a gaming roon is illegal (5 yrs in jail).  

  Jon Rosen
Newsgroups: rec.gambling