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35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 333 (2001-2002)
Gaming Regulation and Mathematics: A Marriage of Necessity

handle is hein.journals/jmlr35 and id is 349 raw text is: ARTICLES GAMING REGULATION AND MATHEMATICS: A MARRIAGE OF NECESSITY ANTHONY N. CABOT* ROBERT C. HANNUM* INTRODUCTION Probability is at the foundation of the gaming business. Every wager in a casino is designed and calibrated according to the laws of chance to exact a certain percentage of the players' money. This is how the casino makes money.' In the short run, a player may win or lose, but in the long run, the gods of probability will catch up. Mathematicians call this the law of large numbers. For casinos, this mathematical law ostensibly guarantees revenues at virtually no risk. As those on the dealing side of the table know, there is no luck when it comes to the business of casino gaming--it is all mathematics.' Not surprisingly, then, mathematical issues arise in gaming law and regulation. A game based on bad mathematics-that is, one whose house advantage is misrepresented (deliberate or otherwise), or whose house advantage is too large or small-may * Anthony Cabot is a partner with the law firm of Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas, Nevada and Chairperson of the firm's Gaming Practice Group. Mr. Cabot is also an Adjunct Faculty member of the International Gaming Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration and is the vice chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of the Gaming Law Section of the State Bar of Nevada. * Robert Hannum is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Denver where he teaches courses in probability, statistics, and the theory of gambling. Professor Hannum is an internationally recognized authority on gambling theory and casino mathematics, and co-author of Practical Casino Math. 1. One popular author put it this way: A casino is a mathematics palace set up to separate players from their money. NICHOLAS PILEGGI, CASINO 14 (1995). 2. DAVID SPANIER, INSIDE THE GAMBLER'S MIND 71-75 (1994) (quoting Nico Zographos, a dealer and gambler extraordinaire who dealt for the Greek syndicate baccarat games in France during the decades after World War I).

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