Date of Award

5-2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Economics and Finance

Committee Chair(s)

Tyler Brough

Committee

Tyler Brough

Committee

Benjamin Blau

Committee

Ryan Whitby

Abstract

The following paper takes an in-depth look at the gambling game Blackjack, also known as Twenty-One, and asks the question: If the game is beatable, how much can one expect to win playing Blackjack? This paper starts by explaining how the game is played and continues by telling of how Thorpe (1962) discovered that the game can be beaten. It then goes into detail of how the game has changed over the past 50 years and what it takes to beat the game today. To find the expected value of a winning strategy, I create a computer program to run millions of simulations to output thousands of results. Conclusions are drawn as a result of the simulation analysis. Results show how to win more than $50 each hour of play.

Included in

Finance Commons

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