[ExI] alternative gambling game, plus epsilon

[Gregory Jones]

--- On Wed, 6/30/10, Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
 
Adrian wrote many interesting comments.  Among these:
 
>Wouldn't rejection of duplicates allow someone to - with enough patience -
build up a set of 1000 uniquely-numbered tickets anyway?
 
Ja.  I wrote (later on) of how a team or non-duplication pool could get together and do this.  Good point, that just having individual buyers eliminate thier own duplicates would cause a slight anomaly to the buyers favor, from my sim,  ---* creating a very slight but marginally detectable anomaly that would look a little like weak psi. *---  
 
It wouldn't be at all obvious how it was happening.  Is that cool or what?  {8-]
 
 
>...But, that would invite abuses (paying even less of that for
someone to process orders for you; you provide the capital that gets
invested)...
 
Puzzling comment Adrian.  That isn't an abuse, but rather perfectly good business practice, ethcially legitimate in this setting.  It provides a job to a prole otherwise unemployed, utilizing capital to create more capital.  Granted it doesn't actually create weath, but merely redistributes it.  So much of our activity does exactly that, very inefficiently I might add.
 
>...Even just $1000 per payout might be useful toward this end, though.
Those who know a bit about human psychology would know there are
certain numbers that many idiots will always pick regardless - such
as 123 and 111 - and simply assign those a practically 0% chance of
winning.

No need to put a feature in the software, for the game as proposed would never choose the favored numbers.  No sneaky code necessary.  {8-]  You might have reverse-cold-slot-machine effect, where several proles jump on the last winning number.  No problem, that number will not win again, for the same reason: if more than about 30 (of 50,000 players) try that scheme, they automatically ensure themselves of no payday.  In the 50k limited game will always be won by the proles who chose a number that only 28 to 30 other proles chose.  Any actual strategy would likely be shared by others, who would defeat themselves.  No cheating is necessary in this game to make a profit.
 
Your comment is interesting and I think true: the maximum profit for the lotto maker in this case might well be to just offer a 1000 dollar tax free prize, instead of the 1100.  The 1100 prize would bring in big numbers of players, but would encourage hiring of ticket buyers and the formation of non-duplication pools as you mentioned and as I describe in another post.
 
spike
 
 

From: Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net

 
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