[00:00] it's 1978 and two young men wearing white shirts&nbsp; walk into a Las Vegas casino technology is simple&nbsp;&nbsp; and roulette is the most popular casino game&nbsp; everybody thinks is completely random it's&nbsp;&nbsp; an unbeatable game however these two nerds are&nbsp; using science to challenge the status quo and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:17] everything we know about roulette is bound by&nbsp; the laws of physics it's a true story like no&nbsp;&nbsp; other a story that started on a college campus&nbsp; a few years before two students are preparing to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:30] to study Physics at the University of California&nbsp; in their spare time like many other kids of their&nbsp;&nbsp; age they're interested in art music literature&nbsp; and free love it's the era of experimentation&nbsp;&nbsp; but one of them is experimenting with something a&nbsp; little different he's interested in Casino games&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:47] in particular beating roulette he's got dreams&nbsp; to be a world-renowned physicist one day so at&nbsp;&nbsp; first it's not about money his line of thinking&nbsp; is simple roulette's inputs are fixed so the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:00] outcome can't be random it will be a lot of work&nbsp; but solving roulette will boost his chances of&nbsp;&nbsp; reaching his dream to do it though he'll need help&nbsp; so he entrusts his closest physics friend with his&nbsp;&nbsp; plans at first he's apprehensive although after&nbsp; several deep discussions and the possibility of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:17] making millions he's on board the only question&nbsp; is can science really beat Las Vegas roulette&nbsp;&nbsp; to find out they need to study and measure&nbsp; the game's fixed variables inside of Vegas&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:30] Casino the roulette wheels Dimensions the ball&nbsp; speed and the wheels rotation are the first&nbsp;&nbsp; variables of Interest they're aware that the&nbsp; casinos might not like their science experiment&nbsp;&nbsp; so they wear baggy long sleeve shirts on their&nbsp; first visit to conceal dictaphone discreetly held&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:46] around the wrist this first visit is all about&nbsp; collecting roulette data and understanding how&nbsp;&nbsp; casinos operate quickly they learned that Vegas&nbsp; casinos use BC Wills regulation roulette wheels&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:58] roulette is one of the most most popular games in&nbsp; casinos because it's so simple gamblers can bet on&nbsp;&nbsp; red black or numbers 1 to 36 when a ball is spun&nbsp; around the wheel the house Edge on an American&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:10] roulette wheel which contains a0 is 5.26% it's a&nbsp; key piece to the puzzle because whatever Casino&nbsp;&nbsp; they visit they know the wheels will be identical&nbsp; however with different croupiers in different&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:23] spins each time they need to find an accurate way&nbsp; of tracking the Wheels speed this is where the&nbsp;&nbsp; dict phone comes in by tapping an index finger&nbsp; on the recording mechanism each time the wheel&nbsp;&nbsp; spins past a fix point in the room they're able&nbsp; to quantify it spin speed similarly when the ball&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:40] spins around the roulette wheel they'll do exactly&nbsp; the same suddenly they now have two data sets for&nbsp;&nbsp; both ball speed and wheel speed better still&nbsp; they can measure how the wheel speed decreases&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:52] over additional rotations and just maybe where the&nbsp; ball will eventually land rouette is becoming more&nbsp;&nbsp; predictable by the second but these early stages&nbsp; are full of obstacles from hiding the equipment&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:05] to tapping the microphone at the wrong time in&nbsp; practice it's awkward and complicated however the&nbsp;&nbsp; theory is Sound by mapping out all of roulette's&nbsp; inputs and testing them over a large enough sample&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:18] repeat patterns start to emerge patterns that&nbsp; weren't obvious to the naked eye quickly it&nbsp;&nbsp; becomes clear that two inputs are by far the most&nbsp; influential where the leaves the roulette wheels&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:30] out of track and the wheels position of rotation&nbsp; as that happens at this stage they realize if the&nbsp;&nbsp; inputs are accurate they can identify a section&nbsp; of five numbers where the ball will land now it&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:43] won't guarantee the exact number each time but&nbsp; it will give them a massive Advantage if their&nbsp;&nbsp; math is right they're seven times more likely&nbsp; to select the correct number but to record&nbsp;&nbsp; the relevant information in a casino and then&nbsp; act upon it in a matter of seconds is no small&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:59] task a task that's made more difficult by their&nbsp; already inadequate financial situation getting&nbsp;&nbsp; this wrong will see them go bust very quickly they&nbsp; need to be absolutely certain they need to Source&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:12] their own BC Wills roulette whe so they can carry&nbsp; out further tests and refine the data fortunately&nbsp;&nbsp; Las Vegas roulette wheels are manufactured by a&nbsp; small independent supplier pulls gaming devices&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:24] finding a BC Wills roulette wheel is easier than&nbsp; they thought immediately they get one shipped to&nbsp;&nbsp; to their dorm room at the University of California&nbsp; the plan is to fit the roulette will with a series&nbsp;&nbsp; of triggers and recording mechanisms using sound&nbsp; and photography so they can record exactly where&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:40] the ball is and where the ball lands over a series&nbsp; of thousands of spins but there's a problem the&nbsp;&nbsp; Port of Oakland have prohibited shipping for&nbsp; the roulette will it's being held temporarily&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:53] at the container facility and further information&nbsp; has been requested by the shipping company DNE&nbsp;&nbsp; immediately jumps in the car and makes a 3-hour&nbsp; drive on arrival he's greeted with an extremely&nbsp;&nbsp; awkward situation two FBI officers have the crate&nbsp; and they want to know why he's shipping a Vegas&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:10] roulette wheel across the country clearly they&nbsp; think he's operating an illegal gambling operation&nbsp;&nbsp; at the time there are significant restrictions&nbsp; pertaining to Interstate gambling why are you&nbsp;&nbsp; shipping Casino equipment what are you planning&nbsp; to do with it you know gambling is legal right&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] their questions are Relentless but after a couple&nbsp; of hours the very anxious physics student is free&nbsp;&nbsp; to leave it appears the FBI have bought into&nbsp; his cover story he's told them that it's an&nbsp;&nbsp; antique collector's item that won't be used&nbsp; for gambling later that night he sets up the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:42] roulette will in his dorm room now they're getting&nbsp; somewhere now they can run live experiments on the&nbsp;&nbsp; exact roulette wheels the Las Vegas casinos use&nbsp; a year after they started DNE farmer and Norman&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:54] Packard are now sinking all of their spare&nbsp; time into studying roulette and probability&nbsp;&nbsp; to them they're on the cusp of something big very&nbsp; big but to some of their friends it's complete&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:06] Madness the obsession has started to impact D's&nbsp; academic scores to the point where he has to take&nbsp;&nbsp; a year out but to him it's totally worth it his&nbsp; plans to beat roulette are going to make them Rich&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:19] to pull in additional help and raise funding they&nbsp; officially registered their own company the name&nbsp;&nbsp; emonic Enterprises it's a strong hint at their&nbsp; philosophical Outlook they don't just want to beat&nbsp;&nbsp; the casino they want to use the proceeds to start&nbsp; their own commune and reject the restrictions of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:35] society back in the dorm room they've erected&nbsp; a set of metal poles tape wires and create a&nbsp;&nbsp; towering structure over their roulette will it's&nbsp; nicknamed the guillotine the structure's purpose&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:47] is to take photos of the whe at the perfect moment&nbsp; at a 90° angle over the center of the wheel is a&nbsp;&nbsp; camera linked to the camera is an oscilloscope to&nbsp; keep track of motion a microphone will trigger the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:00] camera's shutter at the precise moment the ball&nbsp; falls off the roulette wheels out of track then&nbsp;&nbsp; once the ball settles the numbers and image are&nbsp; recorded together the guillotine allows them to&nbsp;&nbsp; accurately measure the numerical distribution&nbsp; of the wheel in line with where the ball had&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:16] moved it's genius after refining the process and&nbsp; collecting multiple data sets they soon realized&nbsp;&nbsp; that they now have a system that allows them to&nbsp; model and track any roulette wheel after tracking&nbsp;&nbsp; it for around about 30 minutes to maintain&nbsp; accuracy they had to collect this data while&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:32] the whe is in play inside the casino Beyond this&nbsp; there are only four variables left to factor in on&nbsp;&nbsp; a spin by spin basis all of which are controlled&nbsp; by the creier they have to identify the position&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:46] the wheel is in the speed the rotor is turning&nbsp; at the location of the ball and the speed of the&nbsp;&nbsp; ball this solution is relatively simple in theory&nbsp; although tougher in practice by monitoring when a&nbsp;&nbsp; number on the wheel passes a fixed point in the&nbsp; room and then passes it again they have both the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:02] position the wheel is in and the speed the rotor&nbsp; is turning at simultaneously monitoring when the&nbsp;&nbsp; ball passes the same fixed Point twice in a row&nbsp; they have the location of the ball and its speed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:14] the hardest part is discretely collecting all&nbsp; of this information and then quickly running&nbsp;&nbsp; the calculations it seems almost impossible but&nbsp; they've come so far so there's only one solution a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:26] computer with D's computer programming experience&nbsp; they de side is worth a shot writing the program&nbsp;&nbsp; isn't the hard part though hiding a small but&nbsp; reliable computer under their clothes is as far&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:38] as they're aware nobody has managed this before&nbsp; the consequences of being caught are potentially&nbsp;&nbsp; disastrous in 1975 Las Vegas is run by the mob the&nbsp; law is the least of their worries after several&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:52] trials and many failures Norman has custom built&nbsp; the hardware the computer's main circuit board&nbsp;&nbsp; will be strapped to the players chest with thin&nbsp; wires running down the inside of the trouser leg&nbsp;&nbsp; where a simple switch will be taped to the inside&nbsp; of their shoe this is how they'll control the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:07] data entry following the data inputs that are made&nbsp; their secret computer will run a formula involving&nbsp;&nbsp; trigonometric functions after it's processed&nbsp; the calculations it'll then signal back where&nbsp;&nbsp; they should be but with a low budget they're&nbsp; running on favors and donations from Friends&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:22] the computer's outputs will be managed via a small&nbsp; electromagnetic device taped to the player's chest&nbsp;&nbsp; next to the computer's m motherboard it's&nbsp; not ideal but they've sourced these pads&nbsp;&nbsp; from a psychology experiment on campus the whole&nbsp; computer will be powered by batteries stashed on&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:37] the player's side under their armpit at last their&nbsp; dream is about to become a reality they're ready&nbsp;&nbsp; for their first hit they're ready to beat Vegas&nbsp; roulette with science on a cold winter afternoon&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:51] in 1977 a very nervous D farmer steps into a&nbsp; Las Vegas casino despite the cold weather he's&nbsp;&nbsp; already broken a sweat he picks a roulette table&nbsp; sits down and starts betting low stakes it takes&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:05] a while but eventually he settles into a rhythm&nbsp; gently tapping his secret input switch twice to&nbsp;&nbsp; track the wheel's rotation and twice to track the&nbsp; ball speed on his chest the computer immediately&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:17] gets to work it twinges back sending mild shocks&nbsp; across his chest the system is working from start&nbsp;&nbsp; to finish he has around 12 to 18 seconds to input&nbsp; the data receive the signal and place the bet it's&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:31] awkward but the advantage is clear they've given&nbsp; themselves a 20% advantage over the house but he's&nbsp;&nbsp; nervous and sensible so he keeps the stakes low it&nbsp; isn't long before he finds himself chuckling the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:45] chips are starting to build up he's making money&nbsp; but with money comes attention he's noticed a man&nbsp;&nbsp; holding a radio in the background he suspects&nbsp; it's a casino Pit Boss it's an unexpected turn&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:58] although currently he has a bigger problem to&nbsp; worry about amongst the excitement of winning&nbsp;&nbsp; and the nerves of using a hidden computer DNE has&nbsp; worked up quite a sweat the sweat is amplifying&nbsp;&nbsp; the shocks the computer makes on his body he&nbsp; doesn't want to adjust the computer at the table&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:14] that would be obvious so he makes a break for the&nbsp; restroom the casino Pit Boss follows him in it's&nbsp;&nbsp; his worst nightmare what now is he about to get&nbsp; caught hidden in the toilet cubicle he holds his&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:26] breath and gently peels the computer's Electro&nbsp; magnetic shock pad from his chest he's sweating&nbsp;&nbsp; profusely and now he's questioning if this was&nbsp; even a good idea the crackle of the pit boss's&nbsp;&nbsp; radio breaks the silence he's being called to&nbsp; an emergency elsewhere in the casino relief with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:44] the computer's output hanging under his shirt he&nbsp; makes a break for the casino's cashier and then&nbsp;&nbsp; the exit it's a closed call but he's got away&nbsp; with it and now he knows their system works he&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:57] just needs to scale up the the stakes and find a&nbsp; creative way to hit Vegas casinos hard in order to&nbsp;&nbsp; make millions of dollars Norman and DNE know they&nbsp; must expand the team hitting the casinos in pairs&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:11] is the idea one player to collect roulette data&nbsp; and Signal which numbers are hot and another to&nbsp;&nbsp; place bets for example if the data taker bets&nbsp; on even it means the wheel has been accurately&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:23] profiled they know Casino staff pull consistent&nbsp; winners aside for questioning so it will take&nbsp;&nbsp; the heat away from and the player wearing the&nbsp; computer under their shirt plus it means the&nbsp;&nbsp; better doesn't have to concentrate too much they&nbsp; can chat with the creier and hold his attention&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:38] within weeks they've bought 20 other science&nbsp; students into the fold they promis to evenly&nbsp;&nbsp; distribute profits amongst the group and fund a&nbsp; scientific Community if it works given the era's&nbsp;&nbsp; social views it's a Savvy move at this point the&nbsp; company has spent its initial $10,000 investment&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:54] on experiments and equipment to beat the casino&nbsp; they don't have a huge bank roll to use so&nbsp;&nbsp; the plan is to start small and gradually increase&nbsp; the stakes as the chips build up but it leaves one&nbsp;&nbsp; question on everyone's mind what if we get caught&nbsp; Norman explains that it's extremely unlikely&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:11] because the computer will only predict a five&nbsp; number section of the wheel to bet on therefore&nbsp;&nbsp; the player placing the bets will put down multiple&nbsp; bets on the roulette table the bets will be spaced&nbsp;&nbsp; out because they're not next to each other like&nbsp; on the wheel it means their betting patterns will&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:26] look totally random to the casino cupia plus&nbsp; technically speaking their system's perfectly&nbsp;&nbsp; legal being physics nerds that have barely set&nbsp; foot in a Vegas casino before it seems like a&nbsp;&nbsp; reasonable answer I mean those greedy casinos make&nbsp; enough money already right their aim is to launch&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:42] a Las Vegas assault over the summer break in the&nbsp; months leading up to it between cramming for exams&nbsp;&nbsp; they need to assemble more computers and put their&nbsp; new recruits through some serious practice their&nbsp;&nbsp; actions need to be second nature seamlessly&nbsp; operating each roulette hit one after another&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:59] he a challenging phase with new equipment&nbsp; problems and Norman thinks they're moving&nbsp;&nbsp; too fast but D won't have it their Las Vegas&nbsp; fantasy is no longer a dream it's August of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:12] 1978 and 16 Babyface physics students have arrived&nbsp; in Las Vegas they're paired into eight roulette&nbsp;&nbsp; beating squads it's been an exhausting last week&nbsp; and tension is running high within the group but&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:25] they're finally ready as they step under the Vegas&nbsp; lights there's a quiet anticipation backed by a&nbsp;&nbsp; mixture of adrenaline and nerves they spread&nbsp; out targeting different casinos at the same&nbsp;&nbsp; time Do's pair go to Harris and Normans hit the&nbsp; Silver Nugget the data collection begins and the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:42] bets start to follow first is $2 bets then five&nbsp; followed by seven things are going well in the&nbsp;&nbsp; first hour D's team is up $1,200 equivalent to&nbsp; $77,000 in today's money the seven other teams&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:57] scattered around Vegas are attempting to do the&nbsp; same the feeling is euphoric until Casino security&nbsp;&nbsp; begin to laer nearby this beginner's luck from a&nbsp; couple of young hippies hasn't gone unnoticed they&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:09] stick out like a sore thumb amongst the casino's&nbsp; regular clientele after an evening's play the wi&nbsp;&nbsp; team regroup amongst the pairs there are several&nbsp; concerns about angryl looking Casino staff this&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:22] is not the problem that they had envisioned one&nbsp; of the other team's data takers has been sweating&nbsp;&nbsp; heavily much like D's first is it the damage&nbsp; is worse though she's lost several layers of&nbsp;&nbsp; skin from repeat electromagnetic shocks a little&nbsp; blood stains her blows there's multiple complaints&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:38] about the malfunctioning equipment in an era of&nbsp; primitive technology it's problematic with broken&nbsp;&nbsp; wires electric shars and the threat of being&nbsp; dragged into a back room tension amongst the group&nbsp;&nbsp; intensifies Norman blames D's persistent pressure&nbsp; to rush ahead but DNE can only think about staking&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:55] bigger if all of the teams had reached $50&nbsp; Stakes they'd be sitting on quar of a million&nbsp;&nbsp; dollars now the risk of a running with Casino&nbsp; security might seem worthwhile then they huddle&nbsp;&nbsp; together in a Vagas parking lot to count the money&nbsp; undoubtedly they've found a way to scientifically&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:11] beat Vegas roulette but it's only generated&nbsp; $10,000 profit and a whole load of problems&nbsp;&nbsp; they face a conundra reinvest the lot Source&nbsp; more equipment and go again or call it quits&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:23] share out the profit and remain friends long into&nbsp; the future I'm glad to say after much reflection&nbsp;&nbsp; Professor DNE farmer Norman Packard and this&nbsp; band of Misfits decide to take option two in&nbsp;&nbsp; 2012 DNE broke his silence on exactly how it was&nbsp; done he said I kept it silent because I didn't&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:41] want to communicate any information that might&nbsp; prevent anyone from taking the casino's money