Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] so who took the Eagles for the points?

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> Define "random."  They won't cheat you because it is not in their best 
> interest to do so.  In other words, you will have exactly the chance 
> of winning that they promise.  What they do with their computers is 
> make it so that certain "close" combinations come up at a higher than 
> expected rate.  Suppose you need 7-7-7 to win a big prize.  The 
> machine will produce 7-7-blah much more often than you would expect, 
> but it will produce 7-7-7 exactly as often as it is supposed to.  
> Seeing 7-7-blah makes people think they "almost got it" - but they are 
> wrong because the trials are virtually independent and getting two 
> sevens the first time doesn't tell you anything about what will happen 
> next time.
>
> The results are random (really "pseudorandom") in the statistician's/ 
> probabilist's sense of the word, but they do not follow the 
> distribution you would expect.

I do think they cheat a bit. As you say they play by the statistics as 
they should but this isn't always the way you might expect. For instance 
I'd swear that women have a higher probablitiy of winning small prizes 
because I've noticed that women that play do exactly the same thing as 
men but tend to win much MUCH more often. This seems to only be the case 
with players who plug in casino cards that identify themselves to the 
machine (to earn points). I'd assume there is some psychology at work 
here. Probably women tend to bet more money if they get a lot of small 
rewards as they play. Probably men tend to bet more money if they 
haven't won anything. Just a guess. Likewise I've noticed that a lot of 
the machines let you win for the first minute or so and then start 
playing fair (you lose as often as you win). I'd guess this is for psych 
reasons too. Probably people who win a lot when they start and likely to 
ignore how much they lose later. I doubt most players notice these 
things but then, as I said, I have played mostly to study the games and 
I usually ignore trying to win anything.

The one feature I did really like was that for a while one local casino 
had their machines randomly despense tickets as you played where each 
ticket could be traded in for a Krispy Kreme donut. I didn't mind 
playing a couple dollars if I was pretty sure to get a free $.70 donut 
back out of the deal. It was fun going around collecting tickets other 
people forgot to pick up too. ;)

--
Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
http://kavlon.org

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