Mathematics Gambling

The Mathematics of Gambling: Probability, Odds, Poker Strategy, Lotteries, and Why We Misjudge Chance explains how gambling works once you strip away superstition, salesmanship, and lucky stories. It gives readers the tools to read a bet properly: probability, odds, payouts, expected value, variance, and risk. The focus is not on abstract math for its own sake, but on the choices people actually face at a card table, in a sportsbook, at a roulette wheel, or while staring at a lottery jackpot. A wager can look attractive because of a big payout, a recent streak, or a confident prediction and...

Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the 17th-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it.

From the simple to the intricate and the audacious to the absurd, Adam Kucharski reveals the long and tangled history between betting and science and explains why gambling continues to generate insights into luck and decision making today. Covering exploits and ideas from across the globe, he meets the teams behind hedge funds that capitalize on inaccurate sports betting odds and explains how PhD-level pundits are using methods originally developed for the US nuclear program to predict sports results.

Blind Them…with SCIENCE! How much better would your life be if you had an army of Nobel Laureates, MacArthur ‘geniuses’ and National Medal of Science winners whispering tips in your ear about your body language, or how to resist that impulse purchase you’ll regret tomorrow, or when to...