Gambling and sin

[BoomBoomMancini]

All that makes perfect sense (except the random reference to Lifetime movies…) except for the part where you’re lumping everyone who gambles in with your former friend. You’re vastly oversimplifying.

There is a HUGE difference between the person who plays the occasional hand of blackjack and the addict who is getting chased around by loan sharks. I’m not disagreeing with you that there are people who get in way over their heads. You just need to recognize that that doesn’t apply to everyone who gambles.

 

[dochawk]

@dochawk could I bother you for a recommendation on your personal favorite book, by way of introduction, to combinatronics and monoids?

My go-to for probability and statistics is my old copy of Freund that I used for a 400 level class for new graduate students. It’s not that it’s explanations are the best or most advanced, but that it’s that they’re all at least “good enough” and it’s very well indexed. Enough so that even when I was taking 600 level classes, or when I was teaching 200, it was what I reached for first. Also, being that level rather than higher, it tends to have more probability.

As for monoids, I have never dealt much with group theory, save in passing when I took number theory (now that was a wild ride . . . start with the empty set, and build sets from that to device math all the way up to Calculus! I think it had a 500 number, but it was quite 600 . . . ).

I did, however, take my Set Theory from Halmos himself . . .

@dochawk I took a friend’s challenge and we wrote an app to play videopoker over the course of 10 days. Quite an interesting exercise. I never could be bothered to field test it, but if the machines aren’t rigged that 1% chance in your favor can become a past-time in that you mindlessly play a game you already know, for the sake of it.

I recall a piece someone wrote in the 90s, in which wrote a screen-scraper to read the site of an off-shore video poker website. He used it for near optimal play, with timing and errors introduced pseudo-randomly to not be detected.

In the demos, it consistently won fairly predictable amounts. When he gave it a few bucks, though, even though the game was allegedly the same, it lost money . . . (gee, who’da thunk it! )

hawk, whose current project is to figure out enough about arduinos to control his lawn & irrigation

 

[adgloriam]

in which wrote a screen-scraper

I’ve done that and it’s a pretty doable. I was thinking about writing a script to log me into CAF every 24h so I’d get that 365 day straight login badge, but it wasn’t worth the effort

(gee, who’da thunk it! )

House always wins

My go-to for probability and statistics is my old copy of Freund that I used for a 400 level class for new graduate students. It’s not that it’s explanations are the best or most advanced, but that it’s that they’re all at least “good enough” and it’s very well indexed. Enough so that even when I was taking 600 level classes, or when I was teaching 200, it was what I reached for first. Also, being that level rather than higher, it tends to have more probability.

I’ll be following Freud’s index with some extras on the side then, thanks for the recommendation I appreciate it.

As for monoids, I have never dealt much with group theory, save in passing when I took number theory (now that was a wild ride . . . start with the empty set, and build sets from that to device math all the way up to Calculus! I think it had a 500 number, but it was quite 600 . . . ).

I really think this is the way to go on what I’ll be doing next, any text-book recommendation for entry level? I personally don’t have a hard time wrapping my head around it, some of the formalism can be heavy and I’ll try to circumvent when needed. Thankfully I don’t have to subject myself to the rigors of academics which allows favoring implementation over memorizing. And yes, I do expect that wild ride, but this time with tangible fruits (unlike the hundred’s experience). There was a time I could reproduce the better part of Oppenheim&Willsky from memory

 

[dochawk]

I’ll be following Freud’s index with some extras on the side then, thanks for the recommendation I appreciate it.

dochawk:

“Freund”, not “Freud” . . . (\me shudders at the thought of counseling numbers about their mothers . . . )

I really think this is the way to go on what I’ll be doing next, any text-book recommendation for entry level?

I want to say that we didn’t have a text, and did it straight from lecture. The professor ended up on my dissertation committee.

actually, wikipedia might be a place to start; they have surprisingly good coverage on many things, including the only readable history of pre-republican (and early republic) Rome I’ve ever found.

 

[Wannano]

There is a certain amount of skill to playing blackjack or even sports betting. I don’t play myself but I can see it being fun for those who do.

My grandma enjoyed playing the horse races and Bingo. She didn’t blow the family budget on it, it was a fun activity she did with friends. It wasn’t so long ago that a lot of churches ran church bingo as a fundraiser and social activity for the church.

I once heard an interesting story in this regard. A terrible accident occurred in an intersection in front of a church on the corner. Soon ambulance, fire trucks and police all surrounded the vicinity. A young boy came up to a policeman and asked him if he could help. The policeman looked at him and asked him what he thought he could possibly do to help. The boy replied, " I know how to pray because I live next to the Church and I listen to them all the time. " The policeman indicated he certainly could help then by praying so the boy dropped to his knees, folded his hands and said…" under the B …4, under the N …6…"

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Yeah, I’ve heard some variations of that one over the years, usually told by Catholics about a Protestant who happened to be walking by the church and heard these strange “prayers”.

Just another joke that no one will get these days when all the churches have stopped offering Bingo because they do not want to feed anyone’s gambling habit.

It used to be fun to watch the women who were serious bingo players sit there with their special markers and “lucky charms” all lined up, playing about 16 bingo cards at a time. Heck if they still had it I’d be tempted to go, now that I’m an old widow without much else to do.

 

[QwertyGirl]

Can confirm. You just gave me wonderful memories of our annual church bazaar at St. Agnes. They had a bingo hall opened all day as one of the attractions and those troll charms the old ladies would set up in front of their bingo cards. So entertaining!!!

 

[adgloriam]

actually, wikipedia might be a place to start; they have surprisingly good coverage on many things, including the only readable history of pre-republican (and early republic) Rome I’ve ever found.

I’ve been through wiki (surprisingly good indeed) but I needed something with methodical exercises for practice along the way. And from what I’ve read I would have guessed there wasn’t a text book (a bit like speech&image recognition not that long ago)…

The Freund was actually a typo (but did make for a good joke )

 

[adamvandyck]

I’ll occasionally buy a scratch off thats a dollar or two from spare pocket change but if it leads to an addiction or financial problems then it becomes a problem.

 

[Lee1]

I’ve tried a couple of forms of gambling in the past. Apart from the obvious dangers of overspending there is another danger which is the idea of chance. For people who are not mathematicians etc chance and ‘lady Luck’ are synonymous, the problem is I think when you lose. If you’ve won then you may thank God for the reward but when you lose, and perhaps lose big, who then do you blame. Gambling for some people can seriously damage their relationship with God especially if that relationship is a loose one, as many people have. This I think is where sin comes into gambling.

 

[Sbee0]

Thanks everyone. I also found this in Canon Law

2413 Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant.

Interesting that cheating is called out as grave and thus mortally sinful if the usual conditions are met. I assume unfair wagers means a rigged game of chance in your favor. Then is it sinful to own a casino since every wager is mathematically “unfair”?

 

[Elf01]

I assume unfair wagers means a rigged game of chance in your favor.

I’d define that one as cheating. I think unfair would be knowing raising the stakes beyond what a competitor can afford and encouraging them to bet anyway.

 

[Seagull]

A casino just opened here in Massachusetts -

I was surprised by how much they pocketed - from saps.
People THROWING their money away.
Not to church, by the way.

BOSTON — MGM’s Massachusetts casino generated $9.5 million
from gambling operations - in its first week open,
state regulators reported Monday.

The state Gaming Commission said in its monthly casino revenue report
that MGM Springfield earned $2.1 million in gross revenues
from table games like blackjack and roulette
and $7.3 million from slot machines during the eight-day span
from its Aug. 24 opening to Aug. 31.