Sic Bo is a popular casino game in which punters bet on the outcome of the roll of three dice.

There are all kinds of things you can bet on: Odd or Even, Big or Small, individual numbers, specific triples, specific totals.

One thing I didn’t realise until recently is that the casino’s margin on all these bets varies greatly, from about 3% up to about 30%…
This is quite different from roulette, in which all bets basically have the same vigorish (1 part in 37).

The basic Big/Small/Odd/Even bets are the best value. The casino’s edge is only made by the fact that these bets don’t pay on triples, so in effect they are taking 1/36, about 2.8%. This is similar to roulette odds.
Bets on a particular pair (eg 2 and 5) pay 6 to 1, meaning a 2.8% margin again.

Specific triple bets only pay 180 to 1. Given that there are 216 equiprobable outcomes, this amounts to a 16% slice for the casino.
You can also bet on any triple, which pays 31 to 1. That’s a 11% for the casino.
You can specify four numbers that must cover all dice, pays 7 to 1, 11% again.
To bet on a particular set of three different numbers pays 30 to 1, a 14% margin.
To bet on two of a number and one of another (e.g. 2 2 5) pays 50 to 1. This is the worst. You only have a 1/72 chance of this coming up. A 29% margin.
The odds of various exact total bets vary with the total.
Either 4 or 17, pays 62 to 1, a 12% margin.
either 5 or 16, pays 31 to 1, 11% margin.
6 or 15, pays 18 to 1, a 12% margin.
7 or 14, pays 12 to 1, a 10% margin.
8 or 13, pays 8 to 1, a 12% margin.
9 or 12, pays 7 to 1, a 7% margin.
10 or 11, pays 6 to 1, a 12% margin.

So they are all pretty rubbish except for Big/Small/Odd/Even/particular pairs.

These odds vary somewhat between casinos but not much. Found some that only pay 5 to 1 on particular pairs, which is terrible.

all gambling is designed to make the place where its happening money – its why I don’t gamble. the best place for money that might be used for gambling is buying food/ goods or just charity. the purpose of gambling is to make someone else money.

someone asked me over the weekend if I would go halves with them in lotto, they gave me 5 bucks and 4 numbers, I would supply the money and 4 numbers later. I forgot, there was no point playing lotto, statistically you can’t win. if you think you will win you should be scared, I reckon you’d have more chance getting struck by lightning. today I just gave him his money back, he got one number right, at least he could buy a pie with the money then.

all gambling is designed to make the place where its happening money
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What about a poker game between friends at a private abode?

dv said:

One thing I didn’t realise until recently is that the casino’s margin on all these bets varies greatly, from about 3% up to about 30%…

That’s bizarre!

IKR.

Reading about this game reminded me of Chuck-a-luck, which Martin Gardner discussed in one of his early Mathematical Games columns (and which Wikipedia says is related to Sic Bo). Gardner said it was a popular game with carnival operators because punters were notoriously bad at estimating the odds.

Chuck-a-luck is a sic bo derived game.

Notice that Chuck and Sick have related meanings.

But that’s irrelevant.

dv said:

all gambling is designed to make the place where its happening money
—-

What about a poker game between friends at a private abode?

most gambling is carried out in public in licensed properties so within the boundaries of clearly understood reasoning I stand by my original assertion.

the house always wins, maths or no maths

most gambling is carried out in public in licensed properties so within the boundaries of clearly understood reasoning I stand by my original assertion.

the house always wins, maths or no maths

—-

Well yeah. They aren’t a charity.

poker machines are set up to make around 10 dollars profit for every 100 dollars put into them

the longer you play the more money you lose – guaranteed

dv said:

most gambling is carried out in public in licensed properties so within the boundaries of clearly understood reasoning I stand by my original assertion.

the house always wins, maths or no maths

—-

Well yeah. They aren’t a charity.

like banks

the house always wins

like banks
—

If you put your money in the bank, you should end up in front.

dv said:

like banks
—

If you put your money in the bank, you should end up in front.

the only people making money out of banks are people who own shares in them or work at the upper echelons

the interest you might make from a bank is only slightly ahead of inflation or any tax they might impose – they are going to impose taxes on peoples banks accounts soon (labor). they used to impose a tax for taking your money out of a bank.

if the bank becomes insolvent because its paid its top staff too much money to lend out too much money they will just use your money to prop them up and give the people responsible a pay rise – life is sweet.

wookiemeister said:

dv said:

like banks
—

If you put your money in the bank, you should end up in front.

the only people making money out of banks are people who own shares in them or work at the upper echelons

the interest you might make from a bank is only slightly ahead of inflation or any tax they might impose – they are going to impose taxes on peoples banks accounts soon (labor). they used to impose a tax for taking your money out of a bank.

if the bank becomes insolvent because its paid its top staff too much money to lend out too much money they will just use your money to prop them up and give the people responsible a pay rise – life is sweet.

governments never make money out of banks

if they own them they sell them

if they tax banks the money they make out of them is dwarfed by the money they have to pay in interest to them for the loans they take with them

4: a government must always be in serious debt.

“the interest you might make from a bank is only slightly ahead of inflation or any tax they might impose – they are going to impose taxes on peoples banks accounts soon (labor).”

Even if we restrict it to fully flexible at call accounts from banks, you can easily get 3.8% interest. Go to term deposits, and you should be looking at 4.25%. Australia’s inflation rate is now 2.4%. Labor’s tax will amount to 0.05% so it’s scarcely significant.

Of course, bank deposits are still a crap investment compared to shares but they are at least secure.

dv said:

“the interest you might make from a bank is only slightly ahead of inflation or any tax they might impose – they are going to impose taxes on peoples banks accounts soon (labor).”

Even if we restrict it to fully flexible at call accounts from banks, you can easily get 3.8% interest. Go to term deposits, and you should be looking at 4.25%. Australia’s inflation rate is now 2.4%. Labor’s tax will amount to 0.05% so it’s scarcely significant.

Of course, bank deposits are still a crap investment compared to shares but they are at least secure.

the interest you earn is slightly ahead of inflation but only on paper

banks normally bring in hatchet men like Gail Kelly to get rid of savers. they don’t like savers, savers mean they have to give interest to them. gail Kelly normally gets rid of the savers by introducing fees on their accounts and reducing interest rates – that seems to get rid of them. i had dumped commonwealth because of their crap service and crap interest rates and moved to st George, then after the salad days i found them strangely doing exactly the same thing and again dumped them and moved back to commonwealth. i later on tracked gail Kelly back to my decisions. as soon as moved in i left soon afterwards.

if you have larger amounts of money you’d be better off parking your money in bank shares or in a “trust”

the rich normally park their money in places that can’t be touched by the government or even the ATO (unless they are really stupid)

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

thanks wookie, but can you give Droppy his handle back now…

diddly-squat said:

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

thanks wookie, but can you give Droppy his handle back now…

Even a stopped clock is wrong twice a day

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

Not quite true. Most of the bell curve in any given gambling study may support this hypothesis, but there will always be the exceptions.

Stealth said:

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

Not quite true. Most of the bell curve in any given gambling study may support this hypothesis, but there will always be the exceptions.

Unless you win the lotto, odds are you’ll lose any winnings you make.

Dropbear said:

diddly-squat said:

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

thanks wookie, but can you give Droppy his handle back now…

Even a stopped clock is wrong twice a day

Only twice???

wookiemeister said:

all gambling is designed to make the place where its happening money – its why I don’t gamble. the best place for money that might be used for gambling is buying food/ goods or just charity. the purpose of gambling is to make someone else money.

someone asked me over the weekend if I would go halves with them in lotto, they gave me 5 bucks and 4 numbers, I would supply the money and 4 numbers later. I forgot, there was no point playing lotto, statistically you can’t win. if you think you will win you should be scared, I reckon you’d have more chance getting struck by lightning. today I just gave him his money back, he got one number right, at least he could buy a pie with the money then.

Found out tonight an old friend has won 1 million and 52 thousand from Saturday nights draw…

True story :D

Even a stopped clock is wrong twice a day

unless you set it to 24 hour mode then only once.

Boris said:

Even a stopped clock is wrong twice a day

unless you set it to 24 hour mode then only once.

Are you sure?

see droppy I didn’t correct you that time.

Dropbear said:

Gambling is voluntary taxation.

The only way to win is not to play

-

Check out “advantage gambling” on phil

Found out tonight an old friend has won 1 million and 52 thousand from Saturday nights draw…

True story :D

—-

A friend of my mom’s made $17000 in her first month using this one weird old tip

When wrong is right
I’ll sleep Stealthily

Through the knight.

So they are all pretty rubbish except for Big/Small/Odd/Even/particular pairs.
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There are probably ‘systems of play’ which make the more obvious odds, of multiples. too dangerous for the house.

Don’t know sic bo tho.

Mr Ironic said:

There are probably ‘systems of play’ which make the more obvious odds, of multiples. too dangerous for the house.

Huh? How do you use a system with dice? Of course, I’m discounting “systems” that involve loading or otherwise substituting the house dice with your own.

From a quick Google, I get the impression that the player doesn’t actually handle the dice in Sic Bo.

Huh? How do you use a system with dice?
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The implement in which the odds are defined are not important…

It is the payout, still, never likely to be over 1 to 1…

Most gambling structures have incentive based odds and restrictions built in.

In some thing as easy as Keno you can ‘improve the payout’ by selecting sections of possible outcomes.

This also increases the cost/risk of betting…