Mythbuster Casino Challenge

This is a myth I would love to see the Mythbusters take on. In the 3 decades I've been going to casinos, the vast majority of players will tell you they can stop anytime they like, whether behind or ahead. The myth is, they think they're in total control of what they do at all times, and I know for a fact they aren't. But how would they go about testing it? The player can't know there is a test going on because it would skew the results.

Quote: EvenBob

This is a myth I would love to see the Mythbusters take on. In the 3 decades I've been going to casinos, the vast majority of players will tell you they can stop anytime they like, whether behind or ahead. The myth is, they think they're in total control of what they do at all times, and I know for a fact they aren't. But how would they go about testing it? The player can't know there is a test going on because it would skew the results.

Maybe they could make it a "disguise" comp where the player had to agree to quit at a certain time to qualify for a prize. Then you would have to follow them around. However, it smacks of the old joke:

"You can't stop gambling"
"What do you want to bet that I can?"

Quote: EvenBob

This is a myth I would love to see the Mythbusters take on. In the 3 decades I've been going to casinos, the vast majority of players will tell you they can stop anytime they like, whether behind or ahead. The myth is, they think they're in total control of what they do at all times, and I know for a fact they aren't. But how would they go about testing it? The player can't know there is a test going on because it would skew the results.

It's a bad myth for Jamie and Adam, or Tori, Kary and Grant.

The Mythbusters do well testing myths involving specific actions that are beieved to ahve a specific result, usually catastrophic. A great example was the Achiles' death ray myth. Involving people they do well with the mechanics of the human body (will sneezing with your eyes open make your eyes pop-off your skull? It turns out it won't), either straight up or by the use of analogues (a pig's stomach determined mixing soda and pop rocks won't rupture the stomach).

When they try to test whether people will react ina certain way, they tend to do poorly. So for example, when they tested whether yawning is contagious, they didn't do very well and the segments were tedious and boring.

What they coudl test is whether dice control is real ro not. I keep meaning to join their message board in their site, but I keep forgetting to do so. They ahve the resources to buy some books and DVDs, and to either get a real craps table or to build a reasonable facsimile thereof. They would surely also build a dice-throwing mechanical arm. it would be fun.

Every single person has stopped gambling and left a casino. I don't really even know what you're saying.

Maybe they ought to test Dice Control.

Or, Roulette prediction.

Quote: scotty81

Maybe they ought to test Dice Control.

Or, Roulette prediction.

They could do a whole casino special with just dice control, roulette prediction and card counting.

I'll spoil it now and predict the results in order:

busted
plausible
confirmed

What more can you ask of a Mythbusters episode?

Quote: scotty81

Maybe they ought to test Dice Control.

Or, Roulette prediction.

We already know roulette prediction is possible. That's one reason the gaming regulations in NV forbid the use of computers to aid in predicting the outcome of a game. Eudaemonic Pie, anyone?

Quote: EvenBob

the vast majority of players will tell you they can stop anytime they like, whether behind or ahead.

The vast majority of TV viewers will tell you that they can stop watching that cute girl on Mythbusters anytime they want.