Which of these virtual roulette whels would you prefer to use?

In My Humble Opinion
1

You’ve won the proceeds from 1000 $10 bets on a virtual roulette table from which you get the cash including your stake for all winning bets. You have the choice of 2 tables.

Table 1 has 37 slots labelled 0-36, you get paid out as though there are 36 like normal roulette. If you land in 0 you get half your money back, (even on non even money bets, more generous than standard La Partage. If you bet 0 you actually get $365 back including your stake).

Table 2 has only 36 slots, labelled 1-36, there are 200 players each round however the wheel is not spun, the casino always chooses the most advantageous number for itself. Your bet is hidden from other players as theirs is from you. Everybody is flat betting the same amount as you.

On either table you can place your chip where you like: even money, corner, single number etc. but you can only bet one chip per round. Which table do you use?

2

As they’re at best even money, may I pass?

But really this post is to ask if the 200 players are allowed to collude.

3

I specifically said you’d won the proceeds of the bets, just to avoid this sort of interjection. You can go home with $0 instead of the proceeds of $10000 worth of bets if you really want to, sure.:rolleyes:

I’m not sure why you think collusion would help on table 2. Effectively your best bet is avoiding what everybody else does. (My choice would be table 2 and randomly choose between black and red via coin toss or die, I think as long as your method for choosing black or red is random you should still get very close to neutral EV, at least better than standard table with La Partage)

4

Collusion would help tremendously on table two. If collusion is possible, the players all agree that players 1-100 bet black, and players 101-200 bet red. Now, the casino cannot choose any outcome that lets them keep any money, so the players keep the maximum amount (and the long-run EV is zero for everyone, assuming the casino isn’t trying to favor one player over another).

Since table one is slightly minus EV for the player, if collusion is allowed (and I trust the other players to act rationally), then table two is the obvious choice.

5

Oh, and if collusion is not allowed on table two, then even with rational players, I’m sure the players’ EV is negative, and even without calculating, I’m pretty sure far more negative than table one.