{"id":839432,"date":"2014-03-04T21:55:39","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T21:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gwae.apps-1and1.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2014-03-04T21:55:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T21:55:39","slug":"seeking-out-unfair-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/seeking-out-unfair-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Out Unfair Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many times I’ve written about video poker games that I consider fair. And what I mean by “fair” is that every unseen card has an equal chance of appearing next.<\/p>\n

Most people seem to accept my definition — or at least understand what I am talking about.<\/p>\n

However, I recently received an email at gamblingwithanedge@gmail.com from someone who calls himself “Reno Master.” The email read as follows:<\/p>\n

I‘ve noticed that you routinely misuse the word “fair” when what you really mean is “honest.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Fairness has an exact mathematical definition. A fair game is one whose EV = 0.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, a fair game is fair in that no player has an advantage over any other player.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you wish to gamble with an edge, you need unfair games with EV > 0 from your perspective.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some people have their own usage of certain words. If this was simply a distinction that Reno Master and no one else made, then I would continue with my own personal definition. But if there was considerable agreement among academics about what the term means, then I would try to use the word as it used by other educated people.<\/p>\n

So I wrote back and asked:<\/p>\n

Where is ‘fair’ so uniquely defined? I understand the distinction you’re making, but I’m not aware that ‘fair’ can only be used to mean EV=0<\/em><\/p>\n

I received a quick reply:<\/p>\n

Being a math major from way back, I really don’t know where I came upon that definition. The following site will have to do: mathworld.wolfram.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

When I looked up the citation, it read: Fair Game — A game which is not biased toward any player. A game in which a given player can always win by playing correctly is therefore called an unfair game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not a math major and I had never heard of this particular website. But after a little exploring, I came away believing the site was respected among mathematicians and that the mathematical terms on the site were used correctly.<\/p>\n

But I also noticed that this didn’t really define “fair” but rather “fair game.” I suspected that “game” was a precise term which may or may not include what I mean when I say “game.” When I’m thinking of “game” I’m thinking about a video poker machine produced by IGT or another manufacturer. On the website listed above, “A game is defined as a conflict involving gains and losses between two or more opponents who follow formal rules. The study of games belongs to a branch of mathematics known as game theory.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Is this what I mean by a game? It’s probably close enough. I haven’t studied Game Theory. While this certainly would be a good thing for a professional gambler to study, I’m 67 years old and the opportunities to benefit from such a study are likely limited. Were I still in my 20s and intended to spend my life as a professional gambler, I would hope that I would be smart enough to study this.<\/p>\n

So I thank Reno Master. In the future, I will refer to “honest games.” And as a gambler I will continue to seek out “unfair games” where the advantage lies on my side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many times I’ve written about video poker games that I consider fair. And what I mean by “fair” is that every unseen card has an equal chance of appearing next. Most people seem to accept my definition — or at least understand what I am talking about. However, I recently received an email at gamblingwithanedge@gmail.com […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,558,557],"tags":[616,561,617,618,619,620,569,621,622,623,624,625,626,627],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}