THE PC-100 & EDDIE SEREMBA

August "Eddie" Seremba, a former horse jockey, casino owner, horse trainer, gambler and great golfer, who paled around with guys like Titanic Thompson, was arrested in the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, in 1978, as he was getting up from the blackjack game. He had just beaten the game for some money, when a pitboss saw a device hanging from under Seremba's coat. Seremba later confided in me that nothing was hanging from his jacket and the whole arrest was a setup.

He was detained and arrested for possession of a cheating device. Seremba says that he was "stripped almost naked" when authorities unwired Seremba from his box type computer. Eddie put up a little resistance and was mad as hell, because he feels that he was not cheating the casino.

Seremba later filed a $100,000 law suit to recover his computer. The computer, the PC-100, was finally returned along with a very sizable settlement. The district attorney of Clark County refused to prosecute Seremba and the case was dismissed.

The PC-100 was a two year investment of manpower that was designed specially for Seremba by some close friends, one of whom was a physicist. ~he main processor is worn over the shoulder on the inside of the jacket, suspended from a strap. A hand held device is the source of input and output from the computer. As the player sees each card. the value is entered into the computer and upon command can be signaled as to the true count of the remaining deck of cards. An small electrical shock is the signaling method.

The computer will automatically calculate a true count normalized for a one, two or four deck game. A player only has to use a simple basic strategy to consistently win. The computer was field tested for more than 1000 hours in Las Vegas casinos' before it was ever sold.

The hand held control box was wired through the jacket and directly into the left side jacket pocket. The box is held in the left hand concealed in the pocket. The player could only play with one hand while inputting card values. Each finger of the left hand rested on a switch, and the thumb was on the top switch. To count a cardI the appropriate key is pushed once and released.

Lawrence Revere, also known to his buddies as Speck Parsons, was honored to have his Revere Point Count used as an example in the computer's operating manual.
Quoting from the manual:

For the Revere Point Count:
Card seen Key pressed 2 or 7 +1
3, 4, 5 or 6 +2
8 or 9 10 or ace -2

To read out the true count, the "R" readout key is held down. When this key is pushed, the thumb will touch the two wires so the user can feel the readout pulses. For example, if the true count is +2, there will be 2 pulses. The intensity of the electrical pulse can be adjusted to suit the user. If the true count is negative, the user will feel a short burst of pulses (a sign burst) followed by single pulses to indicate the count.

The PC-100 sold for more than $2000 when it was first released and now it is presently prohibited from being used in play by Nevada law.