Subscribe to RSS feed
Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also a pseudo 
Quantum theory justifying gambling? So reads this column by one Reverend Doctor Mervin Stoddart from Florida in the Jamaica Observer.
Now I don't know whether quantum theory "justifies" gambling or not. But this paragraph
Life itself is a gamble and a game of trial and error in which all humans are forced to participate. In matters of life, all humans win some and lose some. Living is mostly sowing and reaping, and often just investing while losing or gaining. Playing the slot machine by investing 25 cents with a chance to win $25,000 is much better odds than buying ordinary shares or otherwise investing $25,000 in a stock market with the chance of losing everythingcertainly justifies why casinos make so much money! And, now that I think about it, I think the author was close, but not quite right. Quantum theory doesn't justify gambling, but studying quantum theory might just justify gambling: because at least then the gambler would know what probabilities actually mean and how crummy a deal they might be getting.
Physical Science
Comments
A quick search online, shows you make 92 cents on the dollar with quarter slots and make $1.12 on stocks.
So slots lose you 10% and stocks gain you 10%
This guy is despicable; trying to convince people to blow their money in casinos with spurious logic...he calls himself a reverend and a doctor too. What a fraud...
Posted by: Patrick Cruce | February 11, 2008 6:06 PM
I wonder if there is a decent quantum strategy for poker or blackjack. If there was, then that would certainly be a case of quantum mechanics providing motivation for gambling (albeit only in coherent systems).
Posted by: Joe | February 11, 2008 11:30 PM