The MIT professor Dr. Edward O. Thorp author of the 1962 book Beat the Dealer is without any doubt the inventor of Blackjack Counting Methods. Although some of the Blackjack Counting Methods described in this chef-d’oeuvre are no longer applicable to the modern rules of the casinos, the idea that stands in the basis is the foundation of all the modern card-counting strategies. However, even before the book by Dr. Edward O. Thorp appeared, there were such gamblers who were considered to be the first card counters. Jess Marcum was one of them. This gambler was said to have developed the first full-fledged point count system. Joe Bernstein was the other one who was described in a book I Want To Quit Winners, by Reno casino owner Harold Smith written in 1961. In this book, the gambler is described as the Ace counter who was the threat to all the Nevada casinos.

In 1957 in a book called Playing Blackjack to Win by Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott (also called "The Four Horsemen") the authors published the first accurate basic blackjack strategy and one of the first card counting systems, that was devised with the help of “adding machines”, the first calculators of those days.

The early days of Blackjack Counting Methods brought many interesting names, such as Al Francesco, who was the first one to invent a blackjack team. Thanks to Al, Ken Uston and Tommy Hyland learned how to count cards.

Further development of computer technologies in the 70’s and 80’s brought a significant increase in the development of the Blackjack Counting Methods into a more sofisticated and a stronger one. However, according to many experienced card counters, a simpler and less advantageous system is better if played flawlessly. The reason for this lies in the fact that more complex system might bring lots of undesirable mistakes.

After that in 1970s the first one to write about the tactics of card counting was Ken Uston in the book called the Big Player Team. In this book the author wrote mainly about his experience he gained when he was the “big player” in one of the Al Francesco’s teams. These teams included players who were actually card counters (called the “spotters”) that sit at different tables all around the casino and signal the Big Player the result of the count. Big player joins the table when the count is in his favour and bets maximum. When the count drops, the spotter indicates it to the big player, and the player raises from the table and proceeds to another spotter. Due to the fact that the BP is jumping from one table to another he avoids playing at disadvantage at all. Moreover, the team avoids being detected as the spotters do not alter their bets or strategies due to the count. The weakest point is in the signals they make.

Thanks to this tactics, millions of blackjack teams have carried out millions of dollars from the casinos. The most successful teams with documented earnings include those of Al Francesco, Ken Uston, Tommy Hyland, different MIT groups and the newest one called “the Greeks”. The success of the teams is described in many books and movies as Ken Uston’s Million Dollar Blackjack, Bringing Down The House and the movies 21 and Canadian movie The Last Casino. The publication of such books on Blackjack Counting Methods have initialised the creation of different teams on the one hand, but on the other, the casinos became aware of their tactics and made it much harder for them to operate.