A bookie called Leisure and Gaming, that runs, amongst other things, BetShopItalia.com has just had to stop its shares trading on the stock exchange. The reason?  Punters have won too much money

In fact, punters have won so much money this bookie needs to find some more so that it can continue to be in business.

This proves that you can win money from a bookie, and that you can win so much money that you can make the bookie go bust!

There may be a few reasons that this bookie is in trouble , but one is certain. This bookie set its odds wrongly.  So,  if you can find a bookie with mis-priced odds, you can make money too!

This is an idea that that casinos use to take money off you and that you can use to take money off the casino.  The expected value is the amount that you can expect to win (or lose) each time you bet a certain amount.

‘Expected value’ is therefore your win rate (or the casino’s win rate) for each game you play.

For example, if bet $1, and your expected value is $2 then you will make $1 every time you play.  On the other hand if your expected value is 50 cents, then you expect to lose 50 cents every time you play. This is not the sort of game that you would ever wish to play.

The trick is only to play games where you have an expected value that ensures you win!

Casino games are designed mathematically and psychologically to keep you playing long enough that you lose all your money.

One trick that casinos use is to serve you alcoholic drinks while you are playing.  Sometimes the drinks are free.  They know that alcohol will cause you to bet the wrong amounts on the wrong outcomes.  They know that alcohol will make you lose money.  While you’re playing the croupiers and casino managers aren’t drinking; they are making sure that their system works.

You can use psychology against the casino. For example, refusing to drink alcohol while you’re playing will ensure that you’ve already beaten the casino at one their tricks.  Also, don’t play when you’re tired.  Get to know when you’re mind is not working at its best, when you need a rest, when you need sleep, and stop.  Doing this you’ll be several steps ahead of your fellow players and on your way to beating the casino.

You can use science against the casino, turning their own tricks against them.  Casinos make money by using the laws of probability. Casinos make the games, that means they get to set how probability is used.  But there can be ways around it.  By betting the right amount at the right time in the right game, you can turn the tables on the casino, take the advantage and make money.

Feelings however are no match for the rigorous mathematics that bookies employ to take your money.  Whereas your feelings can change depending on what else happened to you that day.  Perhaps some people are so highly attuned to their feelings, that they can use them to gamble successfully.  I’m not one of those people.

My feelings are no match for the precise rules of mathmatics.  I learned this the hardway losing tens of thousands of dollars in a few weeks.

After that period I had to do some long hard thinking. I started doing research into the techniques casinos use to fool your feelings. But above all I started to delve into the science of gambling.

Gambling really is scientific.  Bookies know this and they use it to make their money and ensure they lose.  Casinos use science to ensure that you lose and they win.

My putting my feelings behind me and concentrating on science, I could turn the tables on casinos and start being a winner.

To be a winner, you need to the skills to win.  Let’s not kid ourselves, those skills are not always easy to get.  If they were, then everyone would have them and everyone would be winning. But we both know, that they’re not.

The simple fact is that they haven’t put in the effort and made the investments so that they can be winners.

Winning in a casino requires knowledge and discipline.

For me, knowledge and discipline meant breaking bad habits.  If you’ve ever had bad habits, eating badly, not exercising and so on, you will know what I mean.  Bad habits in the casino were a time and money drain.  They made my life miserable.

To win I needed to break those habits.  I had to learn self-discipline. I had to learn the to think it systems top make sure that I would always win.

Professional gamblers understand this so that they  really can make a money from gambling.  They work hard, but through diligence they succeed.

That’s the goal.

The problem is if you have an improper mathematical system. A mathematical system that isn’t proved and doesn’t work is less than useless.  It’s positively dangerous.

One such system is in my view the Martingale system.  This was used in 18th century France, a country which was, at that time, full of committed gamblers.

The Martingale system involves doubling your bet each time you lose, in the expecation that you could win your stake back.  If you mange to win your losses back, then you shoudl start over reducing your bet size.

The problem is that if you hit a losing streak then you can quickly go bankrupt, because the amounts you lose quickly increase.

I think everyone understands that if your losses exponentially increase you will quickly lose all your money!

When you’re gambling against someone with almost infinite resources, for example, a casino, the casino can sustain a bad run much longer than the gambler.  Therefore, over time, the casino will always take all the gambler’s money.

There is a solution to this problem, of course. As usual the solution is counter-intuitive.

If the gambler loses then the size of bets should be reduced by the appropriate amount.  In this way, the risk of bankruptcy is reduced to almost nothing. Many people when they gamble try to win back their losses. This is an example of a disastrous strategy which will only ensure that the gambler loses more and faster.

Similarly of this is that as the gambler wins more the size of bets should be increased to increase the amount of money that could be won.

This is the truth of the mathematics of gambling.

More information.

The basis of this idea is that money is worth different things to different people.  For example, $100 is worth a lot more to a beggar than to a billionaire.

To most people a penny is not worth much, so there’s not much point playing for pennies. Why would put in many hours to make almost nothing?  On the other hand if you bet for stakes that are too high you could easily bankrupt yourself.

They key is to bet as much as you can, but with an eye on risk management; there is always a way to bet optimum sizes to maximise your chances of winning and eliminating the chances of going bankrupt.

Bankroll management is key, something that we’ll be coming back to.

I think that you can do so, by using the same system that they do.  They use mathematics.  You can use it too. You can use it against casinos and beat them.

By using systems based on mathematics you can ensure that you get one up on casinos.  This means that you know when you can win and know when you need to stop playing, move to another table or call it quits for the time being.

Because it is math, you can be sure that they system works.  Mathematical proofs are not subject to opinion.  They are fact, so when you know the system, you can be sure it works.

A mathematical system just works!

Mathematics is science. Science has got peple to to the moon, has cured incurable diseases and now helps beat changes in the climate.

Science helps casinos to make their money.  It also helps you make yours.

Often times the nights would end up with each one of us drifting home disappointed and angry.  Our wallets would be empty.

I started visiting casinos alone determined to make my money back and be a winner!  I thought that without the distraction of my friends I could concentrate on the game.

I started seeing patterns in the roulette results and thought I could bet.  I won a bit.  But lost a lot.

I was even losing more than when I had been playing with my friends.  Perhaps they’d just distracted me from my total inability to see patterns in the roulette wheel, the craps dice and the black jack cards.

There had to be a better way.  I withdrew from gambling for months.  I shunned my friends who had introduced me to the casino making excuses when I suggested that we go out together.

Instead I started hitting the library, and bookstores.  I looked online to find the mathematical basis of gambling and winning at gambling.

I found out that I was not alone. There were thousands of others like me, other truth seekers.  I found that there had been people throughout history who had been on a similar quest as me.  They too had wanted how to find out how to win at gambling, how to beat casinos and come away smiling and full of pride.

This is a blog about this journey.