Calculated Bets describes a gambling system that works. Steven Skiena, a jai-alai enthusiast and computer scientist, documents how he used computer simulations and modeling techniques to predict the outcome of jai-alai matches and increased his initial stake by 544% in one year. Skiena demonstrates how his jai-alai system functions like a stock trading system, and includes examples of how gambling and mathematics interact in program trading systems, how mathematical models are used in political polling, and what the future holds for Internet gambling. With humor and enthusiasm, Skiena explains computer predictions used in business, sports, and politics, and the difference between correlation and causation. An unusual presentation of how mathematical models are designed, built, and validated, Calculated Bets also includes a list of modeling projects with online data sources. Steven Skiena, Associate Professor of Computer Science at SUNY Stony Brook, is the author of The Algorithm Design Manual (Springer-Verlag, 1997) and the EDUCOM award-winning Computational Discrete Mathematics. He is the recipient of the ONR Young Investigator's Award and the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stony Brook. His research interests include discrete mathematics and its applications, particularly the design of graph, string, and geometric algorithms.

Few people manage to make money from gambling; fewer still make a living from it. Written for hardened and novice sports bettors alike, Joseph Buchdahl's Fixed Odds Sports Betting examines, through various numerical techniques, how fixed odds punters may learn to beat the bookmaker, protect profits through a sensible approach to risk management, and turn high-risk gambling into a form of low-risk investment. Fixed Odds Sports Betting investigates: Markets in fixed odds sports betting The bookmaker's overround Value betting Ratings systems for sports prediction Profitability and risk Singles versus accumulators Staking plans and money management The favourite-longshot bias Sports advisory services Betting records and their significance testing

Is there really such a thing as a professional gambler? The answer is an unequivocal, "Yes " This book's authors are but two examples. Many thousands of people around the country make a good living exclusively from gambling. It is not easy, but it can be done. The key is to understand which games are beatable and know how to beat them. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have spent many years writing about the finer points of poker, blackjack, and other beatable games. As you will see in the book, those other "games" are horses, sports, progressive slots and video poker, casino tournaments, and special promotions. They don't include craps, roulette, keno, or baccarat for reasons they'll explain. This book, was written for the not quite as experienced aspiring gambler. It shows you everything you need to learn and do if you want to gamble for a living from both the practical and the technical standpoints. The rest is up to you.

This is the story of a man who went from Yorkshire mill worker to Monte Carlo millionaire. Amongst the men 'who broke the bank at Monte Carlo', Joseph Hobson Jagger is unique. He is the only one known to have devised an infallible and completely legal system to defeat the odds at roulette and win a fortune. But he was not what might be expected. He wasn't a gentleman or an aristocrat, he wasn't a professional gambler, he was a Yorkshire textile worker who had laboured in the Victorian mills of Bradford since childhood. What led a man like this to travel nearly a thousand miles to the exclusive world of the Riviera when most people lived and died within a few miles of where they were born? The trains that took him there were still new and dangerous, he did not speak French and had never left the north of England. His motivation was strong. Joseph, his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was only two, faced a situation so grave that their only escape seemed to be his desperate gamble on the roulette tables of Monte Carlo. Today Jagger's legacy is felt in casinos worldwide and yet he is virtually unknown. Anne Fletcher is his great-great-great niece and in this true-life detective story she uncovers how he was able to win a fortune, what happened to his millions and why Jagger should now be regarded as the real 'man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo'.