An Answer Page for Exercise 10

Exercise 10

What would the payoff odds have to be for a pass line bet in order for the bet to be totally fair with no house edge ?


A fair game is one where every player's expectation is zero.

Let p   =   probability to win   =   244 / 495 [ shown previously ]

Then   E   =   ( kB ) * p + ( -B ) * ( 1 - p )   =   kBp - B + Bp

E = 0     kBp = B - Bp   =   B * ( 1 - p )     k = ( 1 - p ) / p   =   ( 1 / p ) - 1

We need   k = 251 / 244   =   1.02868852....

The payoff odds would have to be about 1.03 to 1.