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Johnny Chang is Newest Blackjack Hall of Fame Member
Johnny Chang is the newest Blackjack Hall of Fame member; he was voted into the exclusive club in January 2007. Chang was one of the original members of the MIT Team - the card-counting blackjack team that ruled the casinos in the 1970s and '80s - thus cementing his place in blackjack history as one of the all-time greats.
Johnny Chang helped form the original MIT Team in 1979 and joined the team as an active player in 1981. He underwent the same demanding training that fellow players went through and followed the strict rules of behavior that were imposed on the team. In the early 1990s, after over a decade of playing professional blackjack, Chang formed a company called Strategic Investments (SI), which backed a new blackjack team with a million dollars in seed money.
At first the new team kept winning (estimates range from $4 to 10 million in profits), but the casinos started catching on to the SI team as they did to other teams in the past. Players were photographed and started being banned from casinos. This didn't deter the SI management and new players with unknown faces were recruited, trained, and released into the casinos. But the casinos' determination finally paid off and the SI team was disbanded after a few years. Former SI members have formed subsequent blackjack teams, though none has been as heavily bankrolled as Chang's 1991 super-team.
Chang Started on the MIT Blackjack Team
When Chang joined the MIT team in 1981 as a university student, it was more as a lark and a way to make some pocket money than as a true calling. He attended MIT at the time and he was a blackjack novice. He went through the MIT team training process and admits to having "learned on the job." Chang played during the MIT Team's prime when the concept of Big Players turned blackjack into Big Business.
With a number of partners, Johnny Chang has recently founded the Blackjack Institute (where he is known only as Johnny C). He consistently keeps a low profile and continues to be an impressive foe for frustrated casino owners. With his long history of blackjack successes, it was no surprise that he was the recent addition to the lofty list of blackjack hall of fame members.
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