[FRIAM] The Gambler and the Academic

[uǝlƃ ↙↙↙]

Ha! Sure. But the last comment from the Gambler is the punchline.

On 9/1/20 3:25 PM, Russell Standish wrote:
> I'm pretty sure what's being talked about is "Gambler's Ruin"
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_ruin) a paradoxical result
> where infinite wealth will always win out, even when the odds are
> stacked against. I see from the Wikipedia article, that this has been
> known about since Blaise Pascal's time. I remember it being discussed
> in my undergraduate stats course, so the "Academic" in this piece
> seems remarkably ill-informed.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> On Tue, Sep 01, 2020 at 12:17:57PM -0700, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:
>>> 
>>> Gambler: If you do not see the difference between losing money (in a positive expected value environment) and gaining money (in a negative expected value environment), then I gain confidence that I am talking to a true Academic! The following is Python code that simulates 1,000 Gam-blers each running 1,000 Bets.  Each bet either loses 55% (which is multiplying a negative number, the Bankroll, times 1.55) or wins 50% (which is multiplying the Bankroll times 0.5).
>>>
>>> Jeremy Gwiazda

-- 
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ