Bill Benter was a Vegas card counter turned professional horse racing handicapper. I come to HN for comments like this.

No, he told this story decades ago, and published papers detailing his algorithms, e.g. The only mention of it I could find just said it was suspected he had won the unclaimed prize. Someone who was there cites it in a paper of their own, and then a bunch of other people copy the citation without actually having seen/read the "paper". While many talented mathematicians decide to choose a career of research or teaching, Benter chose to put his skills into more practical directions – to make money. If you're interested in those two papers, the earlier paper 'Searching for Positive Returns at the Track: A Multinomial Logit Model for Handicapping Horse Races' (Bolton, Ruth N. and Randall G. Chapman) is also worth reading: http://www.ruthnbolton.com/Publications/Track.pdf. (1) Benter identified 130 variables (e.g.

“Advances in the Mathematical Modeling of Horse Race Outcomes.” 12th International Conference on Gambling and Risk-Taking, Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 2003). Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time. Bill Benter and an associate named Paul Coladonato had their eyes fixed on a bank of three monitors, which displayed a matrix of bets their algorithm had made on the race—51,381 in all.

I don't believe that's a paywall, just Researchgate being scummy like usual and using a citation while pretending to have a copy - all that would do is ping Benter to ask for a copy. It's easier to make a profit when you are getting (say) 10% back on your losing bets... Disclosure: paraphrasing Sirlin http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/, https://www.scribd.com/doc/166556276/Benter. I think this is the first time Benter has admitted winning the Triple Trio. ), Efficiency of Racetrack Betting Markets. William Benter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania andthat’s where he spent the majority of his childhood. At elementary school, it was already obvious that Benter has outstanding skills in mathematics. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. It is understood that these variables reflect both the horse's form and how the race will be run. A computer will effortlessly handicap races with the same level of care day … Handicapping races manually is an extremely taxing undertaking.

Benter … Bill Benter the man who created a horse racing betting algorithm and made £Million’s. past runs, speed etc) that influence the result of a race.

Even ingrade school, it became evident that Benter had exceptionalmathematic skills as he would often work out different equationsin his head just for fun.

Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldn’t lose at the track. The one solution to bring in more horse racing winners then losers. 184 W. BENTER money. He and his team review past runs to assign values for each horse against each of these variables.

While doing so Benter went bankrupt once, needing to return to the United States to look for new financing and got ditched by his business … I wanted to read those papers, but I can't find anything about the second one beyond the fact that it exists.

Soon he was known in many casinos and escorted out as soon as he tried to enter.

There's a copy of the first paper available at: I've found that many conference "papers" were never actually written as papers at all, they were just oral presentations at a conference. I can't find any evidence that that conference presentation was published or that the conference proceedings as a whole were ever published. A third positive attribute of a computerized handicapping system is its consistency. There are videos of him (just search youtube) presenting at conferences detailing some of his algorithms too... there are no secrets being revealed for the first time here!

One aspect that isn't mentioned, is that Benter (and Zeljko Ranogajec, mentioned at the very end) got a large edge over over punters by negotiating large discounts/rebates from the betting pools by providing such large volumes. Benter, W. (1994).“Computer Based Horserace Handicapping and Wagering Systems: A Report.” In L. Hausch and Ziemba (eds. 183–198. I found the second paper behind a paywall: > I found the second paper behind a paywall: A Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code. No, he told this story decades ago, and published papers detailing his algorithms, e.g. Benter, W. (2003). After receiving his degree in physics, he started his professional gambling career counting blackjack in Las Vegas.

As Benter grew up, he desired to use his mathematical talentsto make a living but he didn’t want to have to devote his lifeto teaching or any other regular 9 to 5 job, so … Thanks for the info! Every aspiring horse racing punter dreams of the perfect wining formula or system. Pretty big thing to not mention TBH, given the odds are so slim once you take the track's take into account. Armed with a strong quantitative background and endless dedication, he was determined to develop a successful betting algorithm and beat the Hong Kong racetracks. >there are no secrets being revealed for the first time here.