Times, it's reasonable to expect that the coin will land heads up and tails up close to 500 times each.

In plain English, we're talking about 'luck.' Looking at our coin-toss game through the lens of averages, if you and I flip a coin 1,000 The second important gambling concept is known as 'fluctuation' (or 'variance'). (Because it requires two trials - win one, lose one - for the house to make its 10¢ 'commission,' your 'negative expectation,' or house edge, in this example is 5%.) If you started with a $50 bankroll, after 1,000 tosses, even if you win half of them, you'd be busted out. Out of every one of your winning payoffs, the longer you play, the more dimes will wind up in my pocket. The law of averages maintains that out of every hundred coin tosses, heads will win 50 times and tails will win the other 50. The deal that I make with you is that every time the coin lands heads up, I win and you pay me a dollar.Įvery time the coin lands tails up, you win - but I only pay you 90¢. Let's pretend that I'm the house and you're the customer and we're betting on a series of coin flips. Because the house establishes the rules, procedures, and payoffs on every game, it builds an automatic commission into every bet to ensure The casino is a business, and wagering is its product. The first important concept to understand about gambling in Las Vegas is that the odds for all the games provide an advantage for the casino ('house'), generally known, appropriately enough, as the 'house advantage' (or 'edge' Your success depends less on being lucky than on being familiar with the rules of the games, being aware of the concepts behind the games,Īnd being conversant with the strategies that enable you to play not only with confidence but also with a fair shot at walking away a winner. The very least, get much more than your money's worth of playing time. But while unreasonableĮxpectations can lead to disappointment - or worse, as in the loss of a lot of money - the key to having a good time is to approach the casinos with the idea that, contrary to popular opinion, you can win or, at It is almost perverse to visit Las Vegas and not gamble. Nine out of 10 visitors gamble while they're in town.

During the past 50 years the name Las Vegas has become synonymous with gambling.

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