The Perfect Bet: Taking the Gambling out of Gambling
Science Talk
Scientific American
4.2 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2016
⏱️ 35 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | There are some things you should always check, like the hygiene rating on your local takeaway, |
| 0:06.2 | the setting on your razor, and whether the party actually is fancy dress. |
| 0:11.1 | The other thing you should check is your Experian credit report, especially if you're looking to borrow money. |
| 0:17.2 | It lets you understand what lenders see, so you can increase your chances of getting the best deals. |
| 0:22.8 | It's dead easy to check it and completely free. |
| 0:26.6 | See it in seconds. Download the Experian app today. |
| 0:30.8 | Welcome to Scientific American Science Talk posted on April 14, 2016. I'm Steve Murski. |
| 0:38.7 | On this episode... A lot of these games are about information. It's about taking advantage of data and |
| 0:42.9 | information that are there which other people perhaps haven't spotted. That's Adam Kucharski. |
| 0:47.9 | He's a mathematician and a science writer and his new book is called The Perfect Bet, |
| 0:52.8 | which is what your March Madness bracket was not. The book's subtitle explains that the book is called The Perfect Bet, which is what your March Madness Bracket was not. |
| 0:56.1 | The book's subtitle explains that the book is about, quote, how science and math are taking the |
| 1:00.7 | luck out of gambling, end quote. Kucharski is based in London, but was in New York recently |
| 1:06.1 | where we talked. |
| 1:09.6 | Adam, what is the perfect bet? |
| 1:13.1 | In simplest terms, I'd probably say that the perfect bet is a scientific bet. |
| 1:17.8 | Really looking throughout history at how people have taken on these games and really looked for loopholes and ways to beat the house. |
| 1:25.3 | There's obviously been a lot of systems, a lot of magic formulas and superstitions going around, but really the most successful strategies seem to have a |
| 1:32.6 | solid basing in science and really tackling those gambling questions as if it's a scientific |
| 1:37.4 | question using experiment and analysis accordingly. So the perfect bet is trying to take the gambling out of gambling. In a way, yes, |
| 1:47.6 | exactly. It's trying to separate this element of luck from games which traditionally are entirely |
| 1:55.4 | viewed as games of chance. So things like roulette or card games, which are really seen as |
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