''Breaking Vegas'' is a television series that premiered on

The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 2004. The series covers the great lengths people have gone to make money, sometimes illegally, from

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s. Many episodes have to do with cheats who illegally take money from the casino using

sleight-of-hand Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card ...

tricks or some sort of gizmo. Namely, these scams include pastposting and

card marking Card marking is the process of altering playing cards in a method only apparent to marker or conspirator, such as by bending or adding visible marks to a card. This allows different methods for card sharps to cheat or for magicians to perform magi ...

. Other episodes include famous examples of legal money-making techniques such as

card counting Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low ...

. Some episodes are about legal strategies like winning at the

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street c ...

table by throwing at certain angles using a certain grip with certain numbers at the top, or taking advantage of a worn-out

ball bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

and a thus tilted

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

wheel. The series was inspired by the two-hour History Channel movie entitled ''Breaking Vegas: The True Story of the

MIT Blackjack Team The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at bla ...

'', written and directed by

Bruce David Klein Bruce David Klein is a producer, director, and writer of television, film, and Digital data, digital entertainment. He is the founder of Atlas Media Corp. and serves as its president and executive producer. On the television front, Klein was an ea ...

and produced by

Atlas Media Corp. Atlas Media Corp. is a New York City, New York-based independent business, independent production company of non-fiction entertainment. The company was founded in 1989 by Bruce David Klein and produces television series and specials, documentary ...

The episode "Professor Blackjack" is about

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

professor

Edward O. Thorp Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack researcher. He pioneered the modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlatio ...

's (portrayed by Jonathan Dickson) computer-based research on the

Kelly criterion In probability theory, the Kelly criterion (or Kelly strategy or Kelly bet), is a formula that determines the optimal theoretical size for a bet. It is valid when the expected returns are known. The Kelly bet size is found by maximizing the expec ...

that was applied in real Vegas casinos in the form of computer aided card-counting schemes with very successful results. Manny Kimmell (portrayed by Peter Salzer), a known mob associate, provided the venture capital for Dr. Thorp's real life experiment and his contribution is described in the same episode.

Episodes

* "Breaking Vegas" * "Blackjack Man" — story of

Ken Uston Ken Uston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack. During the early to mid-1970s he gained widespread notoriety for perfe ...

* "Card Count King" – story of

Tommy Hyland Thomas Hyland is an American professional blackjack player and a 2002 inductee to the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Hyland studied political science at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Since 1979, he has been recognized for his role in for ...

* "The Gadget Gambler" – story of Keith Taft * "The Roulette Assault" * "Dice Dominator" * "Counterfeit King" * "Slot Scoundrel" – story of Tommy Carmichael * "The Ultimate Cheat" * "Vegas Vixen" * "Beat The Wheel" * "Slot Buster" * "Professor Blackjack" * "Prince of Poker"

References

{{Reflist History (American TV channel) original programming History of Clark County, Nevada Gambling television shows 2004 American television series debuts 2000s American documentary television series English-language television shows Television shows set in Las Vegas