Glossary

People tend to credit themselves for their successes while blaming outside influence for their failures. Ask Person A why they did well on a test, and they might tell you they studied hard and for a long time. Ask Person B why they did poorly on the same test, and they might tell you the test questions were poorly written or the teacher did not teach the same material that was on the test.

People tend to credit themselves for their successes while blaming outside influence for their failures. Ask Person A why they did well on a test, and they might tell you they studied hard and for a long time. Ask Person B why they did poorly on the same test, and they might tell you the test questions were poorly written or the teacher did not teach the same material that was on the test.

A false or mistaken belief.

Despite what people want to believe, money does not solve all problems. Money does not guarantee happiness. In fact, on average rich people are no happier than middle-class people.

People tend to remember big events and first events better than those things that occur on a regular basis. Therefore, people are more likely to remember wins (big, exciting events) than losses (common events that happen during every gambling session).

Believing that your chances of winning are worthwhile, despite what the odds of winning actually say. Millions of people continue to buy lottery tickets, believing in their chance of winning, despite the terrible odds against that happening.

The tendency to believe that behaviors you (or people you know) engage in, are “normal” and therefore engaged in by most people.

Believing in ‘luck’ and that ‘luck’ will help you win. For example, that certain items of clothing are ‘lucky’ (e.g., a lucky shirt) or that certain slot machines are ‘lucky’.

Gambling is an activity that involves betting money or something of value on something that has an uncertain (or risky) outcome with the hope of winning more money or items of value.

Games where the outcome is determined entirely by chance rather than skill (e.g., dice games).

The house edge applies whenever you are gambling against the ‘house’ (which is the gambling business - the casino or bingo hall, for example). The house edge is a built-in mathematical advantage to the house, that varies from 0.5% to 40%, depending on the game. This built-in advantage means the house will always come out ahead in the long run.

Independent events are events that are not related to anything that comes before or after them. For example, flipping a coin is an independent event. The outcome is not related to, or influenced by, anything that happens before or after it. Every single time you flip a coin you have a 50%chance of getting heads and a 50% chance of getting tails, no matter how many times you flip the coin.

The more times something happens, the closer the average result will be to its true odds of happening. For example, the true odds of getting heads if you flip a coin is one out of two (1/2), or 50%. But if you flip a coin twice, you might get two heads (100%). If you flip a coin ten times, you are unlikely to get ten heads. If you flip a coin 100 times, you are simply not going to get 100 heads. In fact, as the number of coin flips increases, the likelihood of you getting heads about 50% of the time drastically increases. By the time you are flipping the coin 100 times, you are very likely to get heads somewhere around 50% of the time (plus or minus 5%, let’s say). This is the law of averages - the more often you flip that coin, the closer the number of times you get heads will be to the true odds of getting heads - 50%.

……..the odds of winning the lottery.

The probability that something is

………what are the odds that the person knocking on the door is the Prime Minister of Canada?

How likely something is to happen.

… what is the likelihood that you will blink today?

… what are the chances you will roll a six when rolling a standard, six-sided die?

Impaired control over gambling that has led to significant life problems.

Random events have a probability of occurring that is not not influenced by past history or any other external factor. Rolling a die is a random event. Every time you roll a die, you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting any of the the six numbers on the die. There is nothing you can do to change that probability. How your roll the die does not matter. What you rolled previously does not matter. The alignment of the planets does not matter. That is because each roll of the die is a random event.

The possibility of something happening, or a particular outcome, is unpredictable, happening entirely by chance rather than follow a pattern or according to a plan. For example, getting a six when you roll a die - there was no way to predict this outcome. Rolling a six was a random event.

Behaviors that are dangerous, risky, or subject to significant chance. Examples include substance abuse, gambling, high-risk sexual behavior, or extreme sports (like mountain climbing or skydiving).

A smart bet is one where the odds favor your success, whatever you could win is of significant value, and whatever you could lose is something you can afford to lose.