Bill Benter: The World’s Most Successful Gambler Who Used Math To Beat The Bookies – Casino.Org News

Unlike many other gambling legends Bill Benter does not crave the spotlight.

In fact, he prefers to avoid it all together.

Benter prefersmaking money over talking about it, and whilst other people gamble forpleasure, to him its all about business.

But undoubtedly the most important way he differs from other gamblers is that he will always trust mathematics above his own gut.

Thats because hesmade a career out of using math to swing the odds in his favor.

Originally this took the form of card counting, but Benter was destined for greater things, eventually producing a mathematical algorithm that could accurately and consistently predict the outcome of horse races.

This invention would see him become the richest professional gambler in history.

The mathematical model Benter built not only changed his life forever but also the whole of the gambling industry, popularizing many of the techniques used today including statistical analysis, probability theory, and syndicate betting.

Meaning the man and the model he built in the 1980s remain extremely relevant in todays21st century.

During hischildhood in Pittsburgh, it was clear that Bill Benter had a knack formathematics.

His love fornumbers, problems, and equations soon saw him pursue a degree in physics atCase Western University, one of the top research universities in the UnitedStates.

However, duringcollege Benter discovered a much more interesting means of putting hismathematical skills to the test: Card counting.

Like most people in the 1960s and 70s, Benter discovered the ground-breaking gambling method by reading Edward Thorps book Beat the Dealer.

In 1979, aged22 and keen to test Thorps theory, Benter booked a coach to Las Vegas andbegan his gambling career.

To fund his early exploits, Benter worked in a 7-Eleven for $3 per hour, staking his wages at the blackjack table whenever he could.

During this time Benter was introduced to Alan Woods (below), an Australian professional gambler who had started his own Las Vegas card counting team.

He soon joined them and earned approximately $80,000 per year.

After a coupleof years casinos became wise to the tell-tale signs of card counting and beganclamping down on the practice.

Soon, Benter,Woods, and everyone else involved in their team was blacklisted, denying thementry to all casinos in Las Vegas.

Eager to try their skills on a different game, Woods and Benter turned to horse racing.

They agreed tofocus on Hong Kong due to the massive popularity of the sport and the hugeamounts that were wagered at the twice-weekly races.

This number would reach a staggering $10 billion annually during the 1990s.

BeforeBill Benter and Alan Woods could begin betting on horse racing, they needed tofigure out a means of improving their chances of winning, just as card countinghad helped them improve their odds when playing blackjack.

However,the common belief at the time was that horse racing was too unpredictable, withtoo many uncontrollable variables for a winner to be accuratelypredicted.

Unperturbed,Benter began researching.

He soon found what he was looking for, an academic paper titled, Searching for Positive Results at the Track by Ruth Bolton of Arizona State University.

Inthis paper Bolton outlines how a horses race day performance could beestimated through the examination of several variables. For example, straight linespeed, jockey skill, and size.

Bentercalculated that by creating a model based on these variables he could determinewith greater accuracy the odds of each horse winning.

Thismeant that he could bet with superior confidence and precision than those whomade their choices solely based upon the official odds.

Inshort, he would have an advantage over all other bettors.

Feelinghopeful, Benter coded his rudimentary system into a few computers and flew toHong Kong in 1985.

The first racing season he and Woods betted on resulted in a total loss of $120,000.

Livid,they soon went their different ways, with Benter spending a couple of yearsplaying blackjack in Atlantic City to raise more money whilst continuing toidentify more variables to add to his model.

With each variable identified Benters algorithm became slightly more accurate and soon, in September 1988, he felt prepared to try again.

At this point his model factored in about 20 different variables, and it proved to be much more successful than the previous iteration, netting him $600,000 in his first season.

His annual winnings leaped into the millions when Benter began incorporating the Hong Kong Jockey Clubs live betting odds into his system.

The first year he did this, the 1990-91 season, saw him win an impressive $3 million.

As he approached the end of the millennium, Benters model examined over 100 variables and had resulted in over $50 million earned throughout the 1997 season alone.

In2001 Benters increasingly accurate model led him to win the Triple Trio, acumulative bet in which players must accurately predict the first three horsesin three different races.

Withmore than 10 million possible winning combinations, the Triple Trio stood asthe ultimate proof that Benters model was a sensational success.

His winnings for the Triple Trio alone totaled $16 million, a vast sum of money that he decided to leave unclaimed.

Asper the Hong Kong Jockey Clubs ruleset, the winnings were eventuallydistributed to charities.

With Benter and Woods, who had his own betting setup built from Benters model winning such vast sums of money, word about their betting systems soon got out.

Many competitors began to set up shop, using a description of Benters model, which he published in an academic paper in 1995, to create their own systems.

Competitionsoon cut into profits and the golden age of mathematical horse race betting wasrapidly brought to a close.

Both Bill Benters and Alan Woodss betting schemes were not one-man shows.

Indeed, Benter frequently turned to a whole manner of people, like journalists, analysts, and mathematicians to identify extra variables.

Outside of themodel itself, both men hired a team of individuals to place the bets over telephonecalls.

When the practice of phoning in bets was banned during the 1997 season, Benter hired a large number of runners to print out betting slips and visit shops all over the city to place his bets manually.

This rudimentary system still resulted in winnings of over $50 million for the year.

However, thebusiness-like nature of the betting schemes led to an investigation by the HongKong Inland Revenue Department as any proof that the gambling syndicates actedas businesses would open them up to taxation.

The threat offurther investigation and potentially catastrophic taxes led Alan Woods toflee Hong Kong and settle in the Philippines.

Although asomewhat legal gray area, the manner of business-like betting popularized byBenter and Woods is now widespread, with perhaps its most famous contemporaryexample being Zeljko Ranogajec, who incidentallycut his teeth counting cards and betting on horses with both Benter andWoods.

Ranogajec, whose net worth stands above the $400 million mark, indirectly employs approximately 300 people, and bets using a similar mathematical model to Benter on horse racing around the world.

At its peak, Bill Benters model factored in over 120 variables per horse and was earning him an estimated $100 million per season.

It is nosurprise then that many contemporary gamblers still use Benters model orothers inspired by it today.

In some wayspunters looking to improve their odds have an easier time of it than Benter didbefore the turn of the millennium.

This is largely because statistics are much easier to come by in the digital age.

More data means more variables can be tested, and if proven to predict performance, they can be incorporated into the model.

In order to facilitate this change in betting habits, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and other entities like it, have begun publishing huge swathes of data to ensure all have equal access to the information.

However, withthis analytical approach to betting being widespread, the advantage gained fromusing a model like Benters is limited.

Couple the tonsof bettors with rapidly changing betting odds, and you soon find that theearning potential of each win is significantly smaller than it was in Benterstime.

Many places like the Hong Kong Jockey Club attempt to further level the playing field by notifying punters when large numbers of bets are suddenly put on a horse, thus indicating who syndicates are backing.

This allows theaverage Joe to mimic the syndicates bets, somewhat negating their advantage.

Although many people, including Bill Benter himself, estimate his total winnings at the racecourse to total around $1 billion, he is not in fact a billionaire.

And while Benters exact net worth isnt known, hes widely accepted to be the richest professional gambler on the planet.

As an extremelywealthy man Benter has dedicated himself to helping those less fortunate.

Hisphilanthropy has included donating $1 million tothe University of Pittsburgh and $3 million to polio immunization efforts inAfghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Africa.

He also launched The Benter Foundation in 2007, an organization that has supported a large number of causes focused on improving living standards, boosting the arts, and protecting open spaces in Pittsburgh and across the States.

Thefoundation has also supported a range of scientific research including theUniversity of Edinburghs work on Alzheimers disease and The University ofMichigans research on opioid policy.

Benter alsolectures from time-to-time, with topics such as statistics and mathematicalprobability being taught by him at numerous universities including Harvard,Stanford, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Benter lives in his native city of Pittsburgh with his wife Vivian Fung and their son Henry.

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Bill Benter: The World's Most Successful Gambler Who Used Math To Beat The Bookies - Casino.Org News