Basic Gambling Mathematics: The Numbers Behind The Neon (AK Peters/CRC Recreational Mathematics Series)

a text book for a son. "it's fine"

Every so often, I like to read something that is off of the beaten path for me. I have to admit that just the title of this book "Basic Gambling Mathematics: The Numbers Behind The Neon" intrigued me. I'm an engineer by education and trade, so I've always been attracted to all things mathematical. And while I've only been to places where I was able to legally gamble a handful of times, I've found the strategies on how to bid/bet for various games to be interesting. So, I was happy to be given the opportunity to read and review this book, if for no other reason than to be able to get a look under the hood, so to speak, on how the various games of chance (as well as racing bets) worked and how to determine the true odds of winning.The book can be viewed either as an introduction to probability and statistics, perhaps as a college textbook, or something interesting for the layman to read. First off, be aware that there is math at the beginning of the book, math in the middle, and math at the end. The good news is that you've had most of it in high school, and the little that you didn't, the author explains in easy to follow language. The first couple of chapters introduce you to the mathematical definitions and concepts that you'll be seeing, while the rest of the book breaks down odds the various games of chance and discusses strategies on how to maximize your return. Note that this means, with the possible exception of some pay table variations for video poker, you will not win money in the long run, you'll just lose it more slowly. :-)He shows, via mathematical proofs, that the best possible strategies are often counter-intuitive. Using the just mentioned video poker as an example, oftentimes the best strategy is to turn down a sure payout in hopes of getting a much larger payout. With a five coin-bet, the payout for a flush may be 40 to 1, while the payout for a royal flush may be 4700 to one. If you have, say, the 4, 10, Jack, Queen, and King of hearts, the best strategy is to discard the 4, and hope to draw an Ace of hearts. Although the chances of drawing that Ace is only 1 in 47, because of the much high payout for the Royal Flush, you'll make about triple the money you'd get vice standing pat with the flush, over the long run.You don't have to delve deeply into the mathematical equations if you don't want to, as you can just allow that the author's results are correct and follow along with the results. If you do want to do the math, he has problems and exercises (and like most textbooks, includes half of the answers) within the book. While there are books out there that go into greater detail on various betting strategies for individual games, this is an outstanding effort that not only gives you the best strategies for a large number of games, and mathematically shows you while they're valid. Five stars.

Awesome! Don't get a copy for your friends. Keep it a secret ... :)It is clear that this book was spawned from the ethos of a college class. It is a textbook. But that should not stop you from getting this book. If you are the type of person who wants to really understand the mathematics behind the games of chance that you play, then this is a great book. If you are looking for a simple and easy to read "dummies" book, then this is not for you. You will not be able to read this in a weekend and then be done.The book is dense on info, but not overly so,m it covers basics and then gives great examples.If you are the type that can sit down and read a book with purpose and patience then this will make you a better gambler (well more specifically one that understands the game of chance behind it)

Basic Gambling Mathematics is a great book for anyone who is 1) interested in gambling 2) likes mathematics/statistics and 3) who enjoys learning a bit about the gambling history in casinos. Thankfully, my husband fell under all three categories and found the book fascinating, albeit a bit slow at times. The book reads similarly to a textbook, although it is more geared towards laypeople in that it's not overwhelmingly indepth and more entertaining. The facts and information about the history of casinos and statistics may be interesting to many, and both my husband and I found it to be an interesting read. While I wouldn't suggest this book if you're trying to win it big in Las Vegas, it's interesting to read if you like books about statistics and probability.

A textbook to the coolest class you never got to take. If only my college had offered this class! Really this is an amazingly interesting way to learn statistics. I love how the game is broken down by the numbers letting a left brained person bathe in info. My favorite section was on horse racing. My husbands favorite was gambling. We both got so much out of this book and were so engaged reading it. It was very clear that the author loves math, that he is excited about teaching math. That in and of itself made this a great book to read. This would make a really great gift for someone that really enjoys hitting the casino for a game of craps, or the races to pick a horse. Finding out all the numbers behind the sport is endlessly interesting.

Basic Gambling Mathematics starts off with a very short introduction into the history of gambling and games of chance and very quickly gets started on the mathematic theory behind the games.It starts off simply enough with basic set theory but quickly gets more complicated with summations, unions, intersects etc. For the most part this is high school level mathematics, which for someone like me who's been out of high school for a number of years and have forgotten most of my math class makes the book a little daunting however Mark Bollman does a wonderful in explaining the symbols and terms used and you quickly start remembering what you learned in school.The book takes a myriad of casino games and reduces each one the mathematics behind the probability of winning. Games range from well known ones like craps, roulette and blackjack to ones I've never heard of like the ninety percenter punchboard, pai gow poker and sic bo.Although the book is very math heavy it is not dry and the author keeps you interested throughout with little tidbits of knowledge and history regarding the particular game you are reading about.Dispersed throughout the book are little exercises for you to perform and calculate which aid greatly in both the understanding of what is being talked about and the calculations themselves. The exercises don't take long to complete.Although the book doesn't cover every single casino game there, by the end of it you will have enough knowledge and confidence in your abilities that you could extrapolate the game down to its basic mathematical equations for yourself.This book may not be for everyone but I can see those interested in math and probability and also those with more than a passing curiosity of gambling enjoying it. It does not read like a university thesis like other books on the subject I have previously read.An enjoyable and informative book.

Let's face it, everyone knows that the house has the advantage in Vegas, yet scores of people are drawn to slots, roulette tables, craps tables, Keno, and the list goes on. This book is to help the slightly analytical gambler to better understand the odds in these games of chance. The book is part of a college course that the author teaches at a small college in Michigan. Now, I'm not sure that I'd want my child to take a collegiate course in gambling, but I'd be happy to have the author as his instructor based on the thoroughness and the very well thought-out pedagogy in this book.The book itself provides a mathematical foundation in the form of simple proofs and lessons in the mathematical foundation for the methods needed to compute the probability. Of course, once you've computed the probabilities for any given situation, you need not recompute it over and over since the answer doesn't change, but with the methodology provided in the book, most industrious readers should be able to adapt to variations to understand the odds in some new situation. And this is really the point since intuition is developed from a strong knowledge base. And even better than intuition is the ability to validate that your intuition is correct.The mathematics itself is primarily based on combinatorics and doesn't exceed advanced high school or elementary college mathematics. If you can't quite get the proofs, it shouldn't detract from understanding the computations themselves (you'll just have to take them as truths). But I especially liked the authors appendix on proof by induction. This concept is generally more advanced, even if it's initially taught as wearly as the 10th grade!But all in all, the book is excellent and an easy recommendation for anyone that wants the ability to compute the odds. And although playing against the house is not an investment strategy, this book shows you why Craps provides the best attempt at an advantage against the house (short of counting cards in Blackjack). But for all the poker players (where you're playing not against the house, but against other people with money to lose), you can get a decided advantage by understanding the underlying probabilities.

Many years ago, I attempted to develop some programs that were suppose to help with predicting and picking numbers for the local state lottery. Needless to say - those programs were not successful. In fact I would have to say someone just randomly picking numbers would probably had more success than I did with my software.I wish this book had been available back then, if it had been I would have gladly purchased it. I wish too that when I was in college there had been a course based around this subject/textbook - I would have signed up for it. While this is a book that can be read by the general population, it appears to me to be designed more for use in a classroom (with an instructor to guide students through the math). There are exercises located at the end of each chapter that helps to illustrate and reinforce the concepts presented in the chapters. And helpfully, there is a section in the back of the book that provides answers to the odd number ones. The mathematics covered is not really hard - if you have had some college level math. But even if you haven't - I think most people could still get a lot from reading the non-mathematics portions of the book. The author goes into some detail on the history of the different games of chance, which was something I found fascinating.The section on lotteries was what drew me to this book, but I enjoyed reading about the other games as well. The chapter that generated the most discussion among my friends was the last one on betting strategies. Everybody seem to have an opinion on that (and a favorite strategy for whatever game they liked to play).There is a rather extensive index in the back of the book - something that I'm always appreciate of. In reading a book like this, I tend to like to jump around a lot - and having a good index really facilitates doing that. There are also several appendixes and a bibliography in the back of the book - along with the answers to the end-of-chapter exercises I previously mentioned.I would easily recommend this book to anyone interested in mathematics and gambling.

Mathematics has been a lifelong interest and this particular phase, gambling mathematics, is of special interest to a devotee of the subject. While there is no guarantee that it will help win at the casinos, it is beneficial to have some knowledge of the odds and how they fall. The book should be of great interest to students of stats and probability as the author has taught that subject at the college level. And if left about the house, teenagers may come to realize there is more to math than boring word problems. Now what are the odds of that?

If you like math, statistics and probabilities then this is the book for you. Its very dry just like alot of textbooks. There is not alot of history it is mostly just numbers, formulas and equations. If you like that kind of stuff you will like this book. Its a little above me to be honest but it is well written.