Breaking Vegas is a television series that premiered on The History Channel

The History Channel

History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

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

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

s. It premiered in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 on January 19, 2006 and was renamed Decoding Casinos in India on May 9, 2006. In the Spring of 2007, it aired on The History Channel

The History Channel

History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...

 and The Discovery Channel in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Many episodes have to do with cheats who illegally take money from the casino using sleight-of-hand tricks or some sort of gizmo

Gizmo

Gizmo may refer to:In technology:* The Gizmo or "Gizmotron" is an effect unit for the electric guitar* Gizmo key, found on certain flutes* Gizmo5, a peer-to-peer Internet telephony and instant messaging software application...

. Namely, these scams include pastposting and card marking

Card marking

Card marking is the process of altering playing cards such that the suit, rank or both are only apparent to the person marking the cards , usually for the purpose of cheating at cards by card sharps. To be effective, the distinguishing mark or marks must be done on the obverse side, which are...

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

Card counting

Card counting is a casino card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Card counters, also known as advantage players, attempt to decrease the inherent casino house...

. Some episodes are about legal strategies like winning at the craps

Craps

Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...

 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

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 by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...

 and a thus tilted roulette

Roulette

Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....

 wheel.

The series was inspired by the two-hour History Channel documovie entitled Breaking Vegas: The True Story of the MIT Blackjack Team (see MIT Blackjack Team

MIT Blackjack Team

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

) written and directed by Bruce David Klein

Bruce David Klein

Bruce David Klein is a producer, director and writer of television, film and digital entertainment. He is the founder of Atlas Media Corp..On the television front, Klein was an early innovator in cable programming, responsible for series such as Dr...

 and produced by Atlas Media Corp.

Atlas Media Corp.

Atlas Media Corp. is a New York-based independent producer of non-fiction entertainment. The company was founded in 1989 by filmmaker Bruce David Klein and produces television series and specials, theatrical documentaries, and digital web series....

The episode "Professor Blackjack" is about M.I.T. professor Edward O. Thorp

Edward O. Thorp

Edward Oakley Thorp is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack player. He was a pioneer in modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlations for reliable financial gain.He was the author of Beat the Dealer, the first...

's computer-based research on the Kelly criterion

Kelly criterion

In probability theory, the Kelly criterion, or Kelly strategy or Kelly formula, or Kelly bet, is a formula used to determine the optimal size of a series of bets. In most gambling scenarios, and some investing scenarios under some simplifying assumptions, the Kelly strategy will do better than any...

that was applied in real Vegas casinos in the form of computer aided card-counting schemes with very successful results. Manny Kimmell, 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"
• "Card Count King"
• "The Gadget Gambler"
• "The Roulette Assault"
• "Dice Dominator"
• "Counterfeit King"
• "Slot Scoundrel"
• "The Ultimate Cheat"
• "Vegas Vixen"
• "Beat The Wheel"
• "Slot Buster"
• "Professor Blackjack"
• "Prince of Poker"