''Breaking Vegas'' is an American television series that premiered on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

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

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

s. Many episodes have to do with cheats who illegally take money from the casino using sleight-of-hand tricks or some sort of gadget. Namely, these scams include

pastposting Late betting or past posting is making a gambling, bet after the time when no more bets are to be taken. It is considered cheating (gambling), cheating; information may have become available, including the outcome of the event, that was not availa ...

and

card marking Card marking is the process of altering playing cards in a method only apparent to marker or conspirator, such as by bending or adding visible marks to a card. This allows different methods for card sharps to Cheating in poker, cheat or for magic ...

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

card counting Card counting is a blackjack betting strategy, strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued c ...

. Some episodes are about legal strategies like winning at the

craps Craps is a dice game in which players gambling, bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, " ...

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 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 ...

and a thus tilted

roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

wheel. The series was inspired by the two-hour History Channel movie entitled ''Breaking Vegas: The True Story of the

MIT Blackjack Team The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges; they used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at bla ...

'', written and directed by Bruce David Klein and produced by Atlas Media Corp. The episode "Professor Blackjack" is about

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

professor Edward O. Thorp's (portrayed by Jonathan Dickson) computer-based research on the Kelly criterion that was applied in real Vegas casinos in the form of computer aided card-counting schemes with very successful results. Manny Kimmell (portrayed by Peter Salzer), 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" — story of Ken Uston * "Card Count King" – story of Tommy Hyland * "The Gadget Gambler" – story of Keith Taft * "The Roulette Assault" * "Dice Dominator" * "Counterfeit King" * "Slot Scoundrel" – story of Tommy Carmichael * "The Ultimate Cheat" * "Vegas Vixen" * "Beat The Wheel" * "Slot Buster" * "Professor Blackjack" * "Prince of Poker"

References

{{Reflist History (American TV channel) original programming History of Clark County, Nevada Television shows about gambling 2004 American television series debuts 2000s American documentary television series American English-language television shows Television shows set in Las Vegas