And of course the casino will kick you out if they think your doing that.
Really it seems to me that the house, once again, cant lose in this. If the guy loses, they’re up 180 grand, if he wins, then a whole stream of morons will think that its a good idea and decide to bet their life savings on one roll, and most of them WILL lose. Not to mention the free publicity they’ll, even more if he wins.
Well - Rudyard Kipling would approve:
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_if.htm
Scroll down to the 3rd stanza.
Dabbler in casino gambling stats here…
The house edge on most bets in American (0 and 00) roulette is 5.86% – you bet 100 $1 bets, in the long run you end up with $94.14. The odds are N in 38, and the payoff is 36 for N, where N is how many numbers you have covered.
The house edge on the even-money bets on the American wheel with en prison rules, where if the spin comes up 0 or 00 you lose only half your bet, and also in European roulette (just the 0) is 2.70%. The odds on the European wheel are N in 37.
I’m not sure what the house edge is in American Baccarat (where there are no player decisions, and the house backs all bets), though I recall it’s less than 2.70%. In fact, the game is darn close to even, so a $100 bet on Banker wins only $95.
Well unless the guy needs to double his money in order to save his life. So that his original money is no more use to him than having no money at all, then he is a nut.
But say your worldly goods are $50,000 and you owe the mob $100,000 then betting $50,000 on red or black at roulette gives you a 49% increase in your chance of survival.
Just thought, the guy may not be that stupid. Does he have a book deal signed up, newspaper rights to his story etc. I guess those might well cover his possible losses, and if he wins …
Well, while it’s technically possible to get farther from “never breathe a word about your loss” then “placing the bet on international television” I don’t think it’s in the spirit of If 
PS. There are a few situations where this would make sense: for instance, if he has massive debts and is about to declare backruptcy and/or given a concrete lifejacket by Big Tony
Yes I think the guy is a jerk too.
For one thing, I think the guy is going to bet about $120,000. If his plan is successful, he will get $240,000. Wow - with that kind of money, you could live like a king for the rest of your life !!! Sounds like a sound financial plan to me.
Seriously, I think “reality TV” is causing all kinds of people to do stupid things like this. How about the kids imitating the stunts they saw on the TV show “Jackass”? (and Newton Minnow had the temerity to call television a ‘vast wasteland’)
Want to see your money dwindle away? Visit this site to play the “Virtual Lottery”.
www.1728.com/lottery.htm
“The odds are always with the house”. Dean Martin - “Ocean’s 11”
In a ‘rented’ tuxedo, eh?
So, since he’s already sold EVERYTHING else, if he loses he’ll ultimately be NAKED as well?
How do they decide who gives the BJ? And, how does one win?
The dealer. So make sure you change tables when the dealer goes from being a hot woman to a hot man. Or the other way round, depending on gender and/or sexual preference.
I believe in this case you might actually want to specify “gender XOR sexual preference” </geek humour>
[geeky hijack]
Actually, “gender AND sexual preference” would be most appropriate, since BOTH are needed to make a final determination. The decision is not being made based on the state of one factor regardless of the state of the other.
But that conveys redundant information. I stand by what I meant, though I admit it was ambiguous: I meant “specify (gender XOR sexual preference)” not “(specify gender) XOR (specify sexual preference).”
Of course, this is entirely equivalent to saying “as appropriate” or “of whichever gender” or “from hot man/woman to hot woman/man” etc somewhere, but that wouldn’t be as funny!
Believe it or not, I just played that little game and won 5 out of 6 on the second draw! Wish I had that much luck playing the California lottery for real! Lottery, BTW, is illegal in Nevada…go figure.
I live here in Las Vegas and everyone got a kick out of this story…but ya know, there is always a story and stranger things have happened.
Jennifer Lopez’s mother recently won the Wheel of Fortune in Atlantic City.
a few years ago, a local woman won MegaBucks ($39,000,000) at a machine while her mother was playing in a casino, across the street, at the exact same time on the same type of machine and cursed that someone else had won. To make the story even more bizarre, the woman who won and her sister were in a horrible car crash less than a year later, killing her sister and crippling that woman for life.
there is the story I think you guys are trying to remember that happened at Binions, when Binion was still alive (before the infamous murder). According to local news reports, some young guy came in with $1 million and asked to bet it all on one spin of the roulette wheel. Teddy Binion agreed. The guy won. Doubled his money. They never knew who he was, or where the money came from…but on the way out, when someone asked why he did it, he simply said “a million ain’t what it used to be.”
And even though Las Vegas is built on the winnings from losers, there are always the success stories…in our office, the nice old guy from runner’s bay who delivers our mail every morning won $65,000 on the local casino football pool last year. Another woman in our office won a new Mercedes, with a total investment of $1.00 at one of those oddball slots on the Stip while she was waiting for her sister who went to the bathroom.
Regardless of whether this guy goes on to win, or lose, expect to see him on the Leno Show, the Today Show, Oprah and the rest of those shows. He may be clever enough to make a losing bet a winner. And the way things are going, sometimes the losers become the winners…two words: William Hung.
Well, it may not have been the smartest move in the world, but it paid off.
From the linked site:
I wonder if he got a spanking when he got home?
cynical me is thinking that the casino rigged for this guy to win. The free publicity and lemming like suckers that will follow this “winning” example is well worth the 150k or so the casino had to pay out.
They’re no Rudyard Kipling, but Blood, Sweat and Tears agree too.
Well, he won. Funny they don’t mention the IRS is going to take 20% of his winnings, for now, and probably more later.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/reuters20040411_194.html
I was happy for him that he won but he won’t keep it for long. He’s got all the markings of a soon to be serious gambling addict. I hope his win doesn’t encourage others to try the same.