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SUPER SEVENS SIDE BET:

ARE HIGH-EDGE SIDE BETS REALLY

JUST FOR SUCKERS?

By Alan Krigman

Alan Krigman, and his poetic sidekick Sumner A. Ingmark, have been illuminating the dark recesses of casino gambling for more than a dozen years. Mr. Krigman is especially well known for sharing his insights into the mathematics underlying the various games (including blackjack), the influence of volatility and skewness as well as edge on bankroll during the course of a session, and the impact of betting as well as decision strategies on expected performance. A searchable archive of Mr. Krigman's prose and Mr. Ingmark's muse is online at http://www.iconworldwide.com/winningways/search.php.

Because to the high house edge and the extreme infrequency of big scores, most gambling gurus deride side bets. Players, however, ignore this scorn in droves. Who’s right? Is it the math mavens, that determine based on the laws of probability how much money the joints expect to rake in on the side bets and ─ by extension ─ the patrons expect to lose on them? Or the bettors, who vote with their fanny packs, in a case of the phenomenon described by James Suroweicki in "The Wisdom of Crowds?" (Namely, collective judgments made by groups of lay people are often superior to conclusions reached by experts.)

Typical return schedules, and chances of occurrence, are given in the accompanying chart...

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