A fairly common sci-fi plot gimmick is for the robot/mutant/whatever to score some cash/recognition/goal by using his/her/its superior intellect to win (without really cheating!) at unbeatable “games of chance” that can be anything from Las Vegas gambling tables to NSA unbreakable codes. Such fiction became reality in 1984 when Michael Larsen sat down as a contestant on the CBS game show “Press Your Luck” (PYL). An out of work ice-cream vendor, Larsen had spent his spare time meticulously videotaping the workings of PYL’s “big board” and discovered what nobody else had – a pattern in the board’s supposed randomness that guaranteed he would never lose as long as his concentration and hand-eye coordination could hold out. In an astounding performance that left audiences screaming for more, other contestants and the show’s host totally blown away, and the control room’s network staff in a virtual panic, Larsen scored $100,000+ in over forty consecutive turns – the largest prize ever awarded in game show history. The PYL Larsen episode, as it came to be known, was aired over two consecutive PYL shows and never televised again – until now. The Game Show Network is currently airing repeated showings of their first two-hour documentary (insert snide comment here) entitled “Big Bucks : The Press Your Luck Scandal” on March 22, 26 and 28. Recommended as a cautionary tale of what happens when motivated people go up against mindless computers to try for big stakes; check it out.

Sometimes, of course, motivated people USE mindless computers to try for big stakes. The best tale in THIS vein has got to be The Eudaemonic Pie, described by one reviewer as “brainy techno team takes on the casinos”. Again, technically this team didn’t cheat. They used toe-switches to input roulette wheel timing parameters into a battery-operated computer in their shoes, which would then vibrate coded instructions on how to place bets before the ball fell into the wheel. If the roulette wheel was slightly off level (as they found most were), a significant advantage over the house could be gained by such “scientific observations”. The main people behind this scheme went on to become honchos at the Santa Fe Institute, so their technical skills never went to waste. Today, they’re targeting Wall Street…and so can you.