You have a slightly smaller than evens chance: 18/37. It looks pretty innocent, but the casino has calculated that in the long run this makes them their millions.įor the punter it means that there isn’t an evens chance of you winning your bet if you put your money on red. This is the place where the house beats everyone. If the ball lands here you lose your money, whether you bet on red or black. There are 36 numbers, half red, half black, but then there is also a 37th number: the zero, which is green. Which strategy is more likely to work? Strategy A: put all your money in one go on red or Strategy B: put down £1 on red on each spin of the wheel.Īt first sight it might not seem to matter, but there is a slight twist to the roulette wheel. If you put money on red and it comes up, then you get double your money back.

Your goal is to try to double your money on the roulette wheel. Here’s a little challenge for you by way of example. So the best trick to win your millions is to own the casino.īut there are still some things it is worth knowing as a punter if you are hoping to beat the casino. Their mathematical analysis allowed the casino to rig games such that, although they might lose to punters every now and again, in the long run they would always come out on top. The whole concept of the casino is based on the discovery that mathematics can give you an edge when it comes to playing games of chance, a discovery made by Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal in the second half of the 17th century. But, armed with some mathematical calculations, there are ways to try to beat the bank, or at least lose your money as slowly as possible. The casino is usually a place to lose millions. Let me share with you some of my mathematical hacks for tackling some of life’s challenges and coming out on top.

Since life is itself simply a game in disguise, having a few mathematical tricks up your sleeve can also give you an edge in the game of life. Because games are defined by a set of rules that constrains the way you play the game, mathematics is a very natural language to explore the logical implications of these rules and to find the optimal path to get to your destination. Alongside the games we have created to explore our place in the universe, we have also developed a powerful tool to get us to the winning square quickly and efficiently and, more importantly, in front of our fellow players: mathematics.

Card game played at casinos crossword