December 29, 2003, here on slacktivist: Preying on suckers
Another way of looking at the idea of a fair bet is to ask what would happen if one had enough money to “invest” in enough tickets to guarantee a win. With the pick three games, this would mean spending $1,000 on tickets for every possible combination of numbers. Doing so would guarantee you hit the winner, taking home a prize of, say, $400. You would, in other words, be throwing away $600. That’s a sucker’s bet.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In