Was looking at the ever excellent gamingfloor.com and found links to reviews of a book entitled Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street. What got my attention is the inclusion of Edward O. Thorp as one of the central figures in this book about several mathematicians who formulized winning stock strategies and how gaming figured into the whole thing. Check out the long reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0809046377/qid=1128592124/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4792060-0611369?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 and for you serious number wonks, try http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/47321;jsessionid=aaagbUbuRothur#47646

The picture above is Thorp playing at The Trop in Las Vegas, '63. Hmmm, Las Vegas dealers in '63? I'll have to review Thorp's book to see if he noticed he may have faced some ahem, pretty good card mechanics!