Can you, personally, bet in those casinos now?I would definitely be kicked out if I tried to bet big. But I don't. I go back to Vegas every few months, and I still like to play, but just normal bets -- $25 a hand or whatever. I'm more into poker now. But I'm not a great poker player. I'm not a gambler. I'm a storyteller.

Do you think the movie will spur folks to give blackjack and card counting a try?Movies are so much bigger than books, so I'm sure it will. I see people reading my book on the flight to Vegas. I see it all the time. That's the worst thing you could do. The MIT blackjack team practiced for six months for hours a day before trying it. And they had a team. And they were MIT students. But everyone has a dream when they go to Vegas.

Blackjack is the only casino game with a memory. When you play craps, your last roll has no effect on the dice on your next roll. But in blackjack, when a low card -- six or lower -- is dealt, there is one less low card in the deck, even when the dealing is done from a stack that is six decks deep. That changes the odds that another similar card will come. Slightly.

In 1963, an MIT professor named Edward Thorp ran simulations which showed that the more low cards remaining in the deck or decks, the more the outcome favors the dealer. The more high cards remaining, the more it favors the player. (That's over the long run, anyway.)