Development of early blackjack counting systems
During the early 70th, Dr. Kit Taft began developing the first concealed blackjack computer, and soon, Kit had started using a computer in the Nevada casinos to play “perfect” blackjack. By the mid-’70s, Kit and his son, Marty, had met Al Francesco, and they would be putting together teams of players using computers to beat the blackjack tables.
Nevada had no laws at that time prohibiting the use of devices at their tables. Kit’s first computer weighed fifteen pounds. He went on to develop dozens of concealable computers and other electronic devices over the next two decades, ever smaller and more powerful.
In the toe of each shoe there were two “switches” - one above each big toe and one beneath - for a total of four switches. By using a series of toe taps, kind of like Morse code, the player could relay to the computer everything it needed to know in order to make a decision in a blackjack game: which cards had already been dealt, what cards the player held, and the dealer’s upcard.