ABSTRACT
Before diving into carnival games, it will be useful to review the mathematics that is essential to analysis of games of chance. In this chapter, the author shall do this through the lens of familiar casino games such as craps, roulette, and blackjack. Computing the probability of a more complicated event may be facilitated by breaking that event down into simpler events and carefully combining those probabilities. The notion of expected value is fundamental to any discussion of random variables and is especially important when those random variables arise from a game of chance. If all gamblers followed this sound principle, casinos and lotteries would cease to exist. Usually, such games are the result of faulty design, a mathematical error in the evaluation process, or an exploitable rule that can be attacked by advantage players: gamblers who look for vulnerable casino games that can be beaten within the rules.
