MIT-ская команда: Азарт, обман и миллионы в Вегасе

2003 book by Ben Mezrich

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a 2003 book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team. Though the book is classified as non fiction, The Boston Globe alleges that the book contains significant fictional elements, that many of the key events propelling the drama did not occur in real life, and that others were exaggerated greatly. The book was adapted into the movies 21 and The Last Casino.

The book's main character is Kevin Lewis, an MIT graduate who was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team in 1993. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. This new team was the most profitable yet. Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.

As revealed in the 2008 paperback edition of the book, Kevin Lewis's real name is Jeff Ma, an MIT student who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1994. Ma has since gone on to found a fantasy sports company called Citizen Sports (a stock market simulation game). Mezrich acknowledges that Lewis is the sole major character based on a single, real life individual; other characters are composites. Nonetheless, Lewis does things in the book that Ma himself says did not occur. Chang has questioned the book's veracity, telling The Boston Globe, "I don't even know if you want to call the things in there exaggerations, because they're so exaggerated they're basically untrue."

In its March 2008 edition, Boston magazine ran an article investigating long lingering claims that the book was substantially fictional. The Boston Globe followed up with a more detailed story on April 6, 2008.</blockquote>

This disclaimer allows broad leeway to take actual events and real people and alter them in any way the author sees fit.

A film adaptation of the book, titled 21 (so as not to cause confusion with the unrelated 2003 Steve Martin Queen Latifah vehicle Bringing Down the House), was released in theaters on March 28, 2008. The film is from Columbia Pictures and was directed by Robert Luketic. Kevin Spacey produced the film, and also portrays the character of Micky Rosa. Other cast members include Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Jim Sturgess, Jacob Pitts, Liza Lapira, Aaron Yoo, and Sam Golzari. Jeff Ma, Bill Kaplan, and Henry Houh, another team player from the 1990s, have brief cameo roles in the movie. 21 was filmed outside the buildings of MIT, in Boston University classrooms and dorms, throughout Cambridge and Boston, and in Las Vegas. Says Mezrich, " Kevin Spacey came to me about making a movie. He read the Wired adaptation of the book and became interested The funny thing is filming may take place in casinos such as The Mirage and Caesar's Palace, where the real thing happened."