Most gamblers already know about this concept. Some of them try to avoid it while others adhere to it as if it’s some sort of credo to live by. But for those who are not yet familiar with this concept this is what is all about.
Imagine playing with a coin and tossing it a number of times to see which side lands face up. You notice that for a number of times heads always come face up so you try seeing if it will regularly do that. You then try betting against your friends that you could toss a coin ten times and it will always come up heads. They think you’re wrong so they bet against you and after nine tries your coin landed with the head face up. Now since you’ve managed to land the coin heads up nine times it’s a certainty that for the tenth toss it will still land heads up. So you increase your wager and toss the coin for the tenth time confident that it will land with the head up, but unfortunately the coin lands tails up and you lose the bet.
Principle of Gambler’s Fallacy
This is what gambler’s fallacy is all about, wherein gamblers believe that there is a system in random events. Meaning to say, when a coin lands heads up nine times then it will probably still land heads up for the tenth time. Unfortunately, a random event will always be a random event and even if a coin lands heads up nine times it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will land the same way for the tenth time.
The odds for the coin to land heads up are just the same as when you first tossed it—50-50. No matter how many times you’ve tossed the coin it cannot follow a systematical path in order for you to predict the outcome of a toss in the future.
Gambler’s Fallacy in Casinos
Many gamblers, especially those who have nurtured an addiction for it, rely heavily on gambler’s fallacy. They like to believe that in every game the play there is a pattern which they could use to their advantage. Some gamblers even incorporate this principle in casino games that are designed more to be games of chance like the roulette and the slot machines & online pokies.
There are some gamblers who play endlessly with slot machines because they feel that after a string of losses the next turn will come out as a winner. This concept is still under gambler’s fallacy but with a twist. Some gamblers believe that a pattern of losses will eventually lead to a win because of the concept that you can’t always be a loser.