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Probability
Message posted by Holly (via 63.93.143.68) on June 22, 2001 at 8:28 PM (ET)
Here's my questions:
In the game of roulette,there are 38 spaces on the wheel. 18 are red spaces labeled with odd numbers 1-35, 18 are black spaces labeled with even numbers 2-36 and 2 are green spaces marked zero. An odd or even bet pays 1 to 1. A red or black bet also pays 1 to 1. A bet on a single number pays 35 to 1. John has decided to go for the big payoff and wagers $10 on his lucky 7. Formulate a probability distribution for all of his possible outcomes and calculate his expected value. Is this game fair?
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Re: Probability
Message posted by JG (via 128.8.22.201) on June 22, 2001 at 11:49 PM (ET)
Obviously, it is not a fair game - the house has a small but very important advatage. If you play the game once the house has a small advantage, if you play the game repeatedly the house advantage becomes overwhelming. This can be further analyzed as a randome walk. If you decide to keep playing till you win big or loose everything, you have a high probability of loosing everything. Added to this is the constant flow of allegations that the roulet tables are fixed electonically, etc. and one can probably do better by gambling on the stock market although some of the day traders seem to have had no chance whatsoever.
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