Selling a Winning Strategy

Quote: MathExtremist

The purpose of such challenges is to address those for whom simple math is either not understood or rejected outright. Selling a "gambling system" under the premise that it will guarantee the buyer a long-term advantage over the house borders on fraud.

Someone who has a winning system would never sell it publicly, if at all. If such systems exist, you're likely to never hear or know about them. Simple math notwithstanding... (isn't notwithstanding a wonderful word? It goes back to the 14th century and means 'in spite of the fact'. In this case it means in spite of the fact of simple math.)

Quote: Wizard

I wish it crossed the border.

I'm sure it does constitute fraud, but its hard to prosecute. First you have to find the person who sold it to you and thats almost impossible if you bought it on the net. Then you have to sue them. The best thing is to never buy anything someone who won't demonstrate it in person. Jerry Singer pops to mind..

Quote: Evenbob

I'm sure it does constitute fraud, but its hard to prosecute. First you have to find the person who sold it to you and thats almost impossible if you bought it on the net. Then you have to sue them. The best thing is to never buy anything someone who won't demonstrate it in person. Jerry Singer pops to mind..

Spike aka Evenbob also comes to mind.

Quote: Evenbob

If you had a system that could win, you would essentially be selling it to Mr Bluejay for a paltry 30K. He's the one that has to understand it well enough to program it, he would know it as well as you by the time it was over. It doesn't surprise me there have been no takers.

Well, good job on missing the point. As I say in the very first paragraph on my betting system challenge page:

Quote: Betting System Challenge

My goal is to show that every huckster selling a "winning system" on the Internet for $29.95 (or whatever) is selling pure junk.

Hucksters sell their systems for $19.95, $49.95, or whatever. If they were willing to sell for a measly $25 or so, why wouldn't they sell it for a whopping $30,000?

Sure, anyone who had a winning system and WASN'T trying to sell it wouldn't go my challenge route, because they'd want to keep their winning system secret. But those who ARE selling their system, to any buyer, cheaply, on the mass market, should be all over my challenge. They're not.

Just a simple question: What about "systems" that don't beat the house, but beat your test setting ? As I read it, 11 of 20 runs, at odds of 10 to 1 might be beatable.
If a single run is ahead with probabilty more than 38.5% then your offer is still is favourable (although not claiming to beat the house). Depending on the allowed spread this could be done.

I have a winning system for blackjack. Its very simple. Incredibly easy to learn. And always guaranteed to give you an edge.
I'm willing to sell it for whatever amount of money some fool is willing to pay for it.
The system is of course the famed "Own A Casino".

If I had any other system which would work, I'd simply sit down and start playing. I'd be up by more than 29.95 in no time and I'd have a lovely young lady bringing me drinks. Who on earth would turn down free booze, free food and the company of attractive, half-naked young ladies in order to sit at a desk and open envelopes containing money orders for 29.95 from their soon-to-be competitors who will surely alert the casinos, thus ending the system?

Lets face it: If you wouldn't give up free food, free booze, lovely ladies and unlimited earnings potential for 29.95, nobody else would either.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

But those who ARE selling their system, to any buyer, cheaply, on the mass market, should be all over my challenge. They're not.

With good reason. Its like a testing lab offering snake oil salesmen a challenge on their products. They would avoid it like the plague. System sellers and snake oil salesmen know their products are bogus, of course they avoid the light of day. If I'm misunderstanding your challenge, you're misunderstanding me. At the end of your challenge, you say nobody has accepted it. You don't specify no system seller has accepted it. A system seller will never accept it and somebody who has a winning system will ever accept it. You might as well triple the offer, the results will be the same.

Quote: EvenBob

At the end of your challenge, you say nobody has accepted it. You don't specify no system seller has accepted it.

Oh good lord!

First, if I *did* reference system sellers in my explanation. You keep cherry-picking parts of my page and ignoring both the full quotes as well as the context. What I *actually* said was:

Quote: Betting System Challenge

One reader said that a system-seller claimed to have beaten my challenge (or perhaps the Wizard's challenge, he wasn't clear). Let me be clear: no one has ever even accepted my challenge, let alone beaten it.

There, the phrase "system seller" is right there plain as day.

It's also right there in the very first paragraph of the page, which tells the reader what the page is about. Of course I don't repeat the full and complete details in every single sentence on the page. That would just be ridiculous. I set the stage, so the reader knows what the topic under discussion is. If you choose to ignore it, that's not my fault.

So you are refusing to confirm or deny whether a system seller has ever accepted it? </sarcasm>

It's worth noting that EvenBob aka Spike was also trying to sell his system for roulette as well!

He claimed to have a roulette system that could predict 70% on the outside ECs!