YOU walk into a casino and spend a few moments watching the sequence of winning numbers on a roulette table: 21, 36, 16, 9, 32, 7, 25, 36, 14. This is extraordinary, you think – every one of these numbers is red. In the long run, of course, the number of reds and blacks must even out. With the laws of statistics so blatantly out of kilter, your next bet must be on a black number; it’s a sure thing. This is the famous gambler’s fallacy, one of many seemingly intuitive ideas about luck that turn out to be utterly wrong.
In What’s Luck Got To Do With It?, mathematician Joseph Mazur explores these misconceptions, taking the reader on an entertaining and accessible tour of the history of gambling, the way mathematicians quantify luck and the psychology that keeps gamblers returning to the table. A book worth taking a chance on.
What’s Luck Got To Do With It? The history, mathematics, and psychology of the gambler’s illusion
Princeton University Press