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Whiting estimates the number of successful advantage players to be in the hundreds. Cumulatively, they rake in large profits from games that were designed to be unbeatable: While some bettors might get lucky and win in the short run, over time they are supposed to lose and the casinos are expected to win, statistically speaking. In recent years, however, Whiting says the ranks of advantage players have swelled. Several factors are responsible. One is the ease with which gamblers can find each other online and share tactics. Grosjean has a blog called Beyond Numbers, for example.blog.dinocasino Another is the proliferation of books like Grosjean’s “Beyond Counting,” which he published in 2000 and updated in 2009 as a self-published edition (though he claims that if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t sell you a copy). And because regulated casino gambling now takes place in at least 40 states, casinos compete for customers in part by introducing new games, some of which turn out to be vulnerable. Common advantage-play techniques include “hole carding,” in which sharp-eyed players profit from careless dealers who unwittingly reveal tiny portions of the cards; “shuffle tracking,” or memorizing strings of cards in order to predict when specific cards will be dealt after they are next shuffled; and counting systems that monitor already dealt cards in order to estimate the value of those that remain in the deck. Richard Munchkin, a professional gambler who is the author of “Gambling Wizards” and a co-host of the radio show “Gambling With an Edge,” claims to have mastered all of these techniques. “I think every game can be beaten,” he says. (Munchkin, whose real first name is Richard, chose his professional surname because of the fact that he stands slightly taller than five feet.) “For example, certain slot machines must pay off their jackpots once they have accumulated $30,000. At $28,000, a slot machine might be a play” — gambling argot for something that can be bet on advantageously — “and there are slot teams that specialize in this. I know people who clock roulette wheels and others who can control a single die at craps.” Among the most susceptible games these days are blackjack and poker variations like Ultimate Texas Hold ’Em, in which play is against the house rather than other gamblers. Teams of advantage players — which usually require one person to bet and another to spot dealers’ hole cards (those turned down and not supposed to be seen), track shuffles or count cards — have become so prevalent that they often find themselves in the same casino, at the same time, targeting the same game. “We had a blackjack game in Atlantic City with a weak dealer,” recalls Bobby Sanchez, known as the Bullet, a frequent playing partner of Grosjean’s.