Expected Value and Gambling Guest Posts

“The excitement that a gambler feels when making a bet is equal to the amount he might win times the probability of winning it” – Blaise Pascal 

For their Semester 1 Criterion D (applying mathematics in real-life contexts) assessment, Grade 9 Extended blogged about the concept of expected value and why the casino always wins. The aim of the blog posts was to give readers an intuitive but also quantitative understanding of what is meant by the term "house advantage", with the hope that people can apply that understanding to making more rational and informed decisions about not only gambling, but also insurance, investments and any decisions that involve weighing up costs and benefits.

By verifying their theoretical calculations with random simulations, students were also able to explore "the law of large numbers", and in doing so, contribute to correcting the "gambler's fallacy" that still prevails in our society. 

Without further ado, I present Grade 9's blog posts to you below. 

Enjoy, and remember, gamble responsibly :-)

Benson "Bahama" Wallace, Grade 9 Extended Mathematics