The Perfect Gambling System

I have yet to meet a rich gambler, by which I mean someone who has made his fortune through gambling (give or take the odd lottery winner). If you talk to hardcore betters, as I have, you will find that they are happy to stew in a soup of contradictions. They feel certain that a big win awaits them, rather than the loser feeding the neighbouring slot machine. They believe that they alone have the gift to defy the odds. All the while, the evidence under their noses screams otherwise. They may have lost their homes, their families, their jobs — but they remain convinced that their misfortune will end with the Big One, a life-changing victory over the odds.

On the other hand, I have never met a poor casino owner.

“In commercial gambling, the odds are stacked against the gambler — so the longer you play the more you’ll lose,” Moran says. “You can reach a point where you’ve lost so much that you go in for chasing losses, hoping the next one will be a big win. That is inherent in gambling, not the gambler. It really is a mug’s game.”

Read the full article: Anjana Ahuja Science Notebook Times Online