I never, ever learned anything from a newscientist.com article. Those articles are cute, but one learns nothing deep. I say we go directly to the source! Here is it, Ed Thorp's The Mathematics of Gambling:

http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/thorp/tog.htm

which is the true "bible" of scientific betting. For the mathematically-inclined, I also recommend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_and_information_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion

and if you still have some energy left, try this:

A Markov Chain Analysis of Blackjack Strategy http://www.ece.rice.edu/~crozell/courseproj/MCBJ.pdf

Have fun! And remember: life is too short to read crappy articles!