466: Blackjack
This American Life
This American Life
4.5 • 91.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The casino game everyone thinks they can beat.
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- Prologue: Host Ira Glass and producer Robyn Semien get a blackjack lesson from Andy Bloch, who played for the MIT blackjack team. He teaches them the basics of card-counting, the technique that gives players an advantage against the house — enough of an advantage that most casinos will ask you to leave if they catch you doing it. (9 minutes)
- Act One: Jack Hitt tells the story of the Christian card-counting team featured in the documentary Holy Rollers, and why they see no contradiction in being devout Christians who spend their days in casinos. (18 minutes)
- Act 2: Ira and Robyn go to the casino to try out their newfound card-counting skills. (5 minutes)
- Act Two: Producer Sarah Koenig tells the story of a woman who sued the casino where she lost her inheritance, saying that it was to blame, not her. (25 minutes)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Live. |
| 0:03.6 | Okay, here we go. |
| 0:06.1 | Blackjack, $10 table, $10. |
| 0:10.4 | High limit room, which no one is in. |
| 0:13.6 | Monday, late morning. |
| 0:15.3 | This American Life producer, Robin, Semian, and I are in a casino that will remain |
| 0:18.8 | unnamed here on the radio because we did not have |
| 0:21.2 | permission to record. I did not ask for permission due to the nature of our visit. |
| 0:27.2 | Come on this, let's see over here. |
| 0:29.2 | We stand by one of the blackjack tables, and Robin does a quick scan of the cards. |
| 0:33.8 | What's the count on this table? |
| 0:38.0 | Negative six. |
| 0:39.6 | We were there to count cards, to play blackjack and count cards while we did it, |
| 0:45.1 | which gives a player such a big advantage against the house |
| 0:47.6 | that most casinos ask you to leave the table if they catch you doing it. |
| 0:51.8 | And how did we end up here? |
| 0:55.0 | Well, we've gotten a lesson the day before in how to count cards. |
| 1:01.0 | We used to say that you could teach a piece of wood to play blackjack. |
| 1:07.0 | You just have to be able to keep your wits about you when you're at the table and not make too many mistakes. |
| 1:13.8 | We got our lesson from Andy Block, who played Blackjack for what is possibly the most famous group of blackjack card counters, the so-called MIT Blackjack Team. |
| 1:23.0 | The winnings inspired a best-selling book and a terrible Hollywood film called 21. |
| 1:27.6 | These were real MIT students. |
... |
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