Can a mathematician figure out how to win in gambling?

[LOVER BOY 422]

Some times I ask my self this question,when I was much younger schooling in secondary school I saw one of my teacher who is a mathematician he solve different maths algebra, statistics,in fact they normally pay him to teach in many private school,but till now he is still suffering in the local community,and this question enter my mind if mathematician can solve different equations why can't them be the richest in gambling.
Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

Your opinion is highly appreciated.

[stadus]

The answer is no.

No matter how good you are at math, if you’re playing the wrong game, you’re not going to win. Most of the games people love to play are built with a house edge, and no amount of math can overcome that in the long run.

That’s different for games like card games or sports betting, where skill actually matters. Even then, it’s not just about being good with numbers. Math is only one part of it, not the whole strategy. If it was purely about calculations, everyone with a spreadsheet would be winning already, and that’s clearly not the case.

[panjul07]

Math can be used to boost winning chance in 2 games IMO, they are by using card counting in Blackjack and by doing arbritage betting on sports.
However these 2 strategies are against the terms in almost all gambling sites as well as in real life casinos.
So the answer is that math cant help you to win in gambling especially in pure luck based game such as slot, dice, lottery, etc.
Math maybe part of gambling but it cant help you to beat the system.

[Yamifoud]

Yeah, I saw a movie (forget the title) where a professor hired a mathematical genius for card counting and used it for gambling. They were successful and won millions in the casino, but I don't see it realistically happening in real life.

Of course, their intelligence is higher than that of normal people. But there are no mathematical solutions that can break through the random results of gambling. They are not better than those who have gambled for many years. Experience is still better than any mathematical calculations.

[Eternad]

Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

Your opinion is highly appreciated.

It’s to figure the math behind the game if it’s using a complete random way to determine the result. Mathematicians can just know well the winning percentage of each bet but definitely can’t figure out how to take advantage of the game except on poker, blackjack and sports betting which analysis can improve winning percentage.

But on the typical casino games such as slot, house games and so on it’s impossible to calculate and predict the result through the math.

[demonica]

I'm no mathematician so I can’t really tell how they would do it. But knowing and understanding numbers can probably give you an advantage compared to others. However, i don’t think that it will give you a guaranteed win in gambling. Maybe it differs on what kind of game you will be playing but with math and deep analysis, you can probably know the percent or the probability of winning the game it usually has multiple outcome so you either bet on each outcome or be lucky enough to win. It’s still usually all about lucky and just a bit of advantage with numbers.

[Oshosondy]

Some times I ask my self this question,when I was much younger schooling in secondary school I saw one of my teacher who is a mathematician he solve different maths algebra, statistics,in fact they normally pay him to teach in many private school,but till now he is still suffering in the local community,and this question enter my mind if mathematician can solve different equations why can't them be the richest in gambling.

But you did not say the teacher is a gambler.

If you ask a very good mathematician this question, they will only have just one simple answer for you. The answer would be that if you know how to solve the math behind gambling profit and loss, you will know the reason that you will lose in long term while gambling. That is how gambling designed to be. Also the chance to lose within a short period of time is very high.

[Porfirii]

The mathematician can figure out how to win only if there is some kind of error in the structure of the game, which is very rare nowadays. And, in addition, in that case they would be exploiting a bug, which is forbidden in most cases.

I read not long ago that mathematics nowadays serve more as way of thinking than a way to get practical returns. If maths are made by a machine, and machines can compute much better than us, it will be hard for anyone to figure out how to win in a properly designed game.

[viljy]

Mathematician or not, it doesn't matter, because randomness is impossible to predict. If we talk about such a method as counting cards in blackjack, then this is no longer an accident. However, even here a mathematician will not be able to win if there are several decks of cards. So a mathematician is powerless in front of several decks of cards, but an autistic person can do it! This is exactly the case shown in the famous movie "Rain Man" starring Tom Cruise (of course, this is a cinematic exaggeration, but autistic people do have phenomenal memory).

[clifaduna]

But if it really came down to computing, we would now see crowds of winners with laptops and spreadsheets. And the reality is much more prosaic.The fact is that gambling is built on chance. And no matter how cleverly you count the probabilities, no matter how accurately you calculate the odds, you still won't be able to predict a specific outcome. Mathematics is powerless here: there is no formula that is guaranteed to turn you into a winner. Randomness and luck simply defy accurate calculations.

[Donk1]

​Well if I may say a mathematician can't be good at gambling because gambling isn't an equation it doesn't have a formula, it doesn't have a solution. So to me I do not see the part of a mathematician in gambling. Though I am sure you were carried away by the fact that people who study maths are always smart and have a high understanding of making the impossible possible but then in gambling most especially football betting you can't make the impossible possible because there is no solution to the impossible. There is only predictions and luck which if I may say the probability of winning in gambling is lower that the probability of losing, so they aren't equal. Well that's all for me still if a mathematician is able to apply his knowledge to gamble it would indeed be good as am sure there are other bets that may involve calculation...

[Fortify]

Some times I ask my self this question,when I was much younger schooling in secondary school I saw one of my teacher who is a mathematician he solve different maths algebra, statistics,in fact they normally pay him to teach in many private school,but till now he is still suffering in the local community,and this question enter my mind if mathematician can solve different equations why can't them be the richest in gambling.
Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

Your opinion is highly appreciated.

You seem to think that odds offered by a casino are some magical calculation that can be solved in favor of a player, instead of understanding that the mathematics were engineered specifically to give the casino an advantage and it is not something a player can beat. Players don't have any control over the code that generates the outcomes, which are calculated by the casino independently on each spin, nor can they even see it - we just trust that the casino sticks by the advantage they tell us upfront. Sportbooks use similar statistical analysis that is not going to be 100% correct but based on historical patterns generally favors the house, who also add a small margin of safety too. You really need to go back to school if you cannot understand this logic. There have been a few cases where mathematicians have realized that a lottery can be beaten in different ways, but that doesn't last.

[_act_]

The mathematician can figure out how to win only if there is some kind of error in the structure of the game, which is very rare nowadays. And, in addition, in that case they would be exploiting a bug, which is forbidden in most cases.

Gambling is not something that mathematician can easily exploit, it is just a coincidence with those that was able to win with it. And as you have posted, it is very possible that the gambling platform may not want to give the person the money won if it is too much.

If it is betting, mathematician that are gambling will still find it difficult to look for mistakes. They can look for it but it is not a simple task and it does not worth it.

Knowing how to make the calculation is enough to discourage a mathematician from gambling.

[Beparanf]

​Well if I may say a mathematician can't be good at gambling because gambling isn't an equation it doesn't have a formula, it doesn't have a solution. So to me I do not see the part of a mathematician in gambling. Though I am sure you were carried away by the fact that people who study maths are always smart and have a high understanding of making the impossible possible but then in gambling most especially football betting you can't make the impossible possible because there is no solution to the impossible. There is only predictions and luck which if I may say the probability of winning in gambling is lower that the probability of losing, so they aren't equal. Well that's all for me still if a mathematician is able to apply his knowledge to gamble it would indeed be good as am sure there are other bets that may involve calculation...

Gambling is based on math so they definitely have an edge on games that can be calculated such as card counting or even finding loophole on some lottery in the past.

Gambling is based on probability which a mathematician is an expert. The only problem on modern gambling games was design to make unbreakable even with math since it’s pure luck based now.

Being a mathematician can give you a good advantage on playing poker you knew you hand strength and probability of winning based on the available card.

[iv4n]

Can a mathematician figure out how to win in gambling?

It's not like it hasn't been tried before. There are movies about that matter... but in some ways it's all since fiction, like it's on a border between possible and impossible. You can read & watch a lot of stuff about this, and maybe you can draw some conclusions.

In any case, what's stopping you from trying? It's one of the ways to find out for yourself. Who knows, maybe you have that "special touch"... you just need to give it a try and not quit after a few days.

[Pandu Geddon]

Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

We might see experts solving problems with formulas, but gambling is something different. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a topic like this. Some of my colleagues have also discussed it. Until now, I still can’t believe there is an expert who can calculate and predict with near-perfect accuracy. I only believe that gamblers can be very lucky or unlucky.

[pawanjain]

Some times I ask my self this question,when I was much younger schooling in secondary school I saw one of my teacher who is a mathematician he solve different maths algebra, statistics,in fact they normally pay him to teach in many private school,but till now he is still suffering in the local community,and this question enter my mind if mathematician can solve different equations why can't them be the richest in gambling.
Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

Your opinion is highly appreciated.

Its not necessary for a mathematician to win in gambling because each game has their own algorithm.
We never know what goes behind the scenes and what all factors are considered to derive an outcome of a game.
A mathematician can try his attempt to crack the game and in fact, there have been some incidences in the past where people have figured out ways to crack a game and won on several occasions.
But things have turned out pretty complex these days and we don't see any such news lately.
Chances of such things happening these are very slim.

[Ruttoshi]

Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

Your opinion is highly appreciated.

Gambling is a different thing entirely from mathematics making it very difficult for a mathematician to be in advantage over the bookmakers. Gambling is a game of luck and luck comes by chance. Nobody knows how luck works because it's still a mystery to all.

Assuming mathematicians can, you will see that casinos will run at loss because we have a lot of mathematicians worldwide and not only your teacher. You cannot predict correctly about the future even seers can't. Though, some gambling games needs the understanding of mathematics before you can play them perfectly.

[crwth]

Well, I think this topic is off course. I think asking "Why are there no mathematicians who gamble?" is better. From the top of my head, these are the possible reasons.

• Law of Large numbers
• House edge

Someone who knows maths knows that large numbers will win overall, and the trend will still show up, no matter what happens. There would be luck in the short term, but in the long run, it will follow the current trend, which has the house edge.

You can do card counting, but it's possibly hard, but that's just the thrill, possibly. There's no direct formula for winning in gambling; it's about taking advantage of strategies that you can use.

[Patikno]

Some times I ask my self this question,when I was much younger schooling in secondary school I saw one of my teacher who is a mathematician he solve different maths algebra, statistics,in fact they normally pay him to teach in many private school,but till now he is still suffering in the local community,and this question enter my mind if mathematician can solve different equations why can't them be the richest in gambling.
Is this different and difficult for them to solve and figure out who is supposed to win or score in the next rounds in football?

I think it all depends on the type of gambling game. Not all gambling games can be calculated easily.

In soccer gambling, there are many factors that can influence the outcome of a match, whether it is the weather, the players, the field, and so on. Even using statistical calculations, the final result can't necessarily be predicted. Essentially, it is all about probability. If the probability is small, then calculations can be made, and if the probability is large, then calculations become more difficult. Even if you are playing a game called "Toss Coin", you might assume there are two possible outcomes in a single flip: heads or tails. However, you can't always be right based solely on statistics, such as game history.

So, do you think mathematicians can win at gambling? I don't think so; there will always be outcomes that can't be calculated or predicted in a given spin. If calculating probability were as easy as you imagine, I am sure many smart people would have made a fortune from gambling, but in reality, that is not the case, right?