The Attraction of Games of Chance

I look at probability. mathematics and finding the best odds on this site.   For instance we all know that we should never play on an American roulette wheel when at all possible because if effectively halves our chances of winning – by doubling the house edge.  But sometimes we just have to accept that chance and fate is something that just cannot be predicted despite our best efforts.

It’s the same with an online casino like this one here, sometimes it’s just best to pick your favorites not those with the best odds.  Obviously if you decide to select a casino based in the Ukraine, that sends out Spam emails every day but has 10 times the bonuses of any other online casino – luck will not help you.  In fact you’re probably best to stop going online altogether as it’s bound to end in tears.  Picking a fair and reliable casino online is probably the most important point.

It’s when you hear stories like Susan and Lee Mullen that you tend to think – ‘stuff the probabilities’ – I’m just going to play Super Martingale tonight.  Lots of casino systems can easily lead to huge winnings,  if you’re lucky.

Initially Susan and Lee Mullen from Grimsby weren’t very lucky at all, in fact exactly the opposite.  They had played the lottery for years using the exact same numbers.  Unfortunately one particular week they were quite short of money, Lee has some disability problems and was unable to work.  So this week they had to forgo buying their lottery ticket and bought nappies for their baby instead.

What else could decent parents do ?  Alas if they’d been reckless, gambling parents and spent the money on lottery tickets they would have scooped the lottery as their numbers came up, £8.5 million was the jackpot.

As Mrs Mullen said

To say that we were totally gutted was an understatement………

No this just sounds like a hard luck story, a parable of the cruelness of fate but no it actually evolves into one of the stories that make you chuck your laws of probability out of the window.   Six years later after gradually coming to terms with their ‘experience’, Susan Mullen had a dream at Christmas that they would win again.

 

Winning Games of Chance

Mr and Mrs Mullen Win Lottery (Again)

So they started to play the lottery once again.  By February a few short weeks later their numbers came up again, well not the same numbers just a luck dip selected at random by the till for them.  Never the less, their jackpot winnings came to just under £5 million and this time they had the ticket!

The vast majority of us will go through life without coming any where near a lottery win, yet this couple won and lost two of the biggest ever.  For those of us who like to put these things in some sort of perceptive by calculating the odds, you’ll probably not be surprised it’s quite a large number.

The odds are estimated at 196 trillion to one against.

This simply shouldn’t have happened,  it was virtually mathematically impossible.  But it did happen and next time you walk passed an American Roulette wheel and fancy a spin – then perhaps you’d best ignore my advice and just have a go!

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