Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

You're traveling to the city of sin on a red-eye flight on a Friday night. Half a million dollars is strapped to your chest; twenty-five thousand more in blackjack chips are in your overnight bag; ten fictitious IDs are in your wallet. You may be certain that you are being watched and scrutinized as soon as you set foot in Las Vegas. And to top it all off, you have a multivariable calculus test on Monday morning, someone has been snooping through your mail, and the IRS is auditing you. Welcome to the world of a select group of bold and daring math whiz kids from MIT who took legal chances at casinos and won over three million dollars, all while finding time for football games, keg parties, and final exams. During the heyday of the go-go eighties and nineties, a group of MIT students who were overachievers and anarchists joined an underground blackjack club that had been active for decades and was focused on card counting and systemic beatings at big casinos worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of dollars duct-taped to their bodies, the blackjack squad went on weekly trips to Las Vegas and other glitzy gambling destinations while their peers worked long hours in laboratories and libraries. These students risked fifty thousand dollars a hand, won VIP suites and other premium amenities, and partied with showgirls and celebrities—all underwritten by unscrupulous financiers they would never meet. Selected by an oddball genius—a former MIT professor and a compulsive player who had created a special system of nonverbal clues, body language, and role-playing—this particular group of card whizzes made over three million dollars from corporate Vegas, earning them the ire of the casinos and, eventually, the targets of retaliation. For the first time, their secrets are revealed in this exclusive account. Ben Mezrich, a master storyteller, transports you from the academic ivory towers to the vibrant world of Las Vegas, where everything is possible and often happens. Enter the murky world of corporate Vegas with Bringing Down the House. You'll discover back rooms, constant surveillance, private detectives, and the aggressive and intimidating strategies of pit bosses and heavies. With twenty distinct names and disguises, the gang of young card counters battles their way past these obstacles to enjoy the high life, until the day Vegas pursues them brutally back to Boston. The high life folds like a lousy hand of cards; secret identities can no longer be maintained. A real-life combination of Liar's Poker and Ocean's Eleven, Bringing Down the House is full of suspenseful action and hair-raising near-misses. This is a narrative that Vegas doesn't want you to read.