The Origin of Chemin de Fer
When wagering was legalized in the state of Nevada in 1934, twenty-one screamed into recognition and was usually bet on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in '56 which described how to reduce the casino advantage built on probability and stats which was quite complicated for people who weren't math experts.
In '62, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin's paper and also developed the first card counting techniques. Dr. Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting strategies and the practices for reducing the house advantage.
This created a large growth in chemin de fer gamblers at the US betting houses who were trying to implement Dr. Ed Thorp's techniques, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The strategy was challenging to understand and complicated to carry through and therefore expanded the profits for the betting houses as more and more folks took to betting on Blackjack.
However this large growth in earnings was not to last as the players became more sophisticated and more aware and the system was further improved. In the 1980's a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have developed countless methods to thwart players who count cards including (but not limited to), multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and speculation has it, sophisticated computer software to observe body language and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you banned from the majority of betting houses in sin city.