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By Technology Review

April 2003

Cracking the Casinos

When he wrote Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, Ben Mezrich hoped his book would become a movie. He didn't even imagine that actor Kevin Spacey would offer to produce it. But last fall, when Wired magazine covered the story, Spacey read it. "He invited me out to Hollywood and attached himself to it," Mezrich says. MGM subsequently purchased the movie rights to the book, and Spacey's company, TriggerStreet Productions, agreed to produce it.

The book tells the true story of several MIT students who, in the early 1990s, developed sophisticated card-counting techniques, which they based on statistical probability. They took their expertise to casinos across the country and made millions of dollars, constantly dodging discovery. Mezrich happened on the story when mutual friends introduced him to one of the card counters, the book's "Kevin Lewis," whose true identity remains secret.

Although the movie is still in the planning stages, TriggerStreet producer Dana Brunetti says he hopes to film at MIT and at the casinos where the original events took place. Production is slated to begin this year.