| Date: |
Monday, January 1, 2001
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| Question/Topic: |
Lottery - lotteries - gambling - odds
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| Answer/Pointer: |
Lotteries and other forms of gambling.
The odds in a lottery are worse than other forms of gambling. But those other forms are also slanted toward the people running the games.
Casinos have something called the vig (short for vigorish), meaning the advange the house enjoys on all so-called "even money" and
"true odds" bets, on which you're paid, respectively, what you've bet or an amount proportion to your risk.
In horse racing, you bet against everyone else at the track, and typically, the house takes 17% of all money bet. With breakage
(the house rounds every payoff down to the nearest dime), add anoterh 2%. That's 19% you have to overcome before breaking even.
These little numbers are the percentages of defeat built into every casino game, sports game, or horse race you bet on. In the long-run,
you receive back the following number of cents for every dollar gamed on the game listed.
[Note: in the following chart, c=cents, since the computer keyboard does not have the cents sign]
Casino betting Sports Betting
Baccarat 98.8c-85.9c Football and Basketball
Blackjack Single bets 95.4c
Normal 90c-80c Two-bet parlays 90c
Perfect strategy 98.8c-98c Three-bet parlays 87.5c
Strict card counting $1-98c Four-bet parlays 68.7c
Craps Horse Racing 81c
Normal bets 98.6c-83.3c
Single odds 99.2c Lotteries 14.3c
Double odds 99.4c
Ten times odds $1
Keno 70.5c
Roulette 94.7c
Slot machines 98c-65c
Source: Consumers' Research - March 1996
How many combinations of six numbers in the numbers 1-49? Answer: 13,983,816
Florida Lottery: (850) 487-7777
Canadian Lottery: (416) 488-4002 [Canadian Almanac & Directory R 971.0025 Can]
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| Librarian: |
LCLCPL
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| Comments: |
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