“Playing Blackjack to Win” was perhaps the first book ever (pre-dating Edward Thorps) which detailed how to beat the casino edge at Blackjack. It was published in the 1950’s and essentially detailed the basic of the card counting technique that has gained such prominence over the following decades, as well as other tips and strategies.
While the technique at the time didn’t have the computational power of the modern age for all intents and purposes it is card counting and offered the very same advantage.
As you might expect, the four authors (Herbert Maisel, James McDermott , Roger Baldwin and Wilbert Cantey ) were all mathematicians. Ironically, even though they deduced that the technique would work, they didn’t actually put it to use.