Gambling in 2100?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by gjc8

Whoops, missed that.

Well obviously the automation in 2100 is that much better, being NAIs rather than the sorts of expert systems they use today.

[Anthony]

The problem isn't really gambling in 2100 -- having an AI has absolutely no effect on whether a slot machine will successfully steal your money -- the problem is gambling skill -- many forms of gambling are totally immune to skill, most of the remainder are extremely vulnerable to the combination of eidetic memory, intuitive mathematician, and enhanced time sense.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Nevada isn't a place where AIs have citizenship. Caine can be asked to leave just like a normal card counter is now. Same thing with Kitsos really.

Also AIs have Honesty, which should keep them from cheating in casinos, and keep them from helping you cheat too.

However, VIIs and other assistive technology make it much easier to learn to count cards without ongoing assistance, so blackjack may no longer be profitable enough to be offered. Games dependent on physical collisions like craps and roulette may last longer with modifications like vibrating surfaces. And Bingo and slots are already totally virtual, and totally rigged by law. :(

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

However, VIIs and other assistive technology make it much easier to learn to count cards without ongoing assistance, so blackjack may no longer be profitable enough to be offered.

Meh, you can learn on your smartphone right now, I don't think having the screen up against your eyeball instead makes any real difference. It takes practice though, and a willingness to think like a mathematician instead of a gambler. It's also not enough to count cards, you need to master the actual strategy of the game too. Counting cards only helps you figure out how to bet and buy insurance.

You also need to be able to keep track of your running total and whats actually in front of you at the same time. You also have to count fast. Some people just can't keep numbers straight like that.

Finally all the casinos really need to do is put even more decks in the shoe and/or shuffle more often and card counting is nullified.

[Phil Masters]

As I understand this, GURPS Gambling skill is about playing true games of chance effectively - getting a feel for odds in general, spotting rigged games, whatever. Games with an actual skill component of any sort (e.g. Poker) each get their own mandatory specialisation of Games skill.

Where Blackjack - random to casual play, susceptible to a certain kind of skill - falls is anyone's guess, but in any event, I too suspect it's a dead game by 2100. Implants and brainbugs would just make it too easy to become a card counter. True games of chance will still be around - they're a compulsion for some people, a tax on hope for others; characters could use AI assistance to judge the odds better, but knowing the odds doesn't necessarily stop a game from being played. People play roulette, where the odds are practically printed on the table, after all.

Actually, that gives me a scenario idea... Back in the 2070s, a chain of high-end genefixing clinics announced that they'd found a set of genetic sequences correlated to compulsive gambling. A significant number of rich parents then paid to have these not occur in their offspring; after all, who wants their kids to be gambling addicts?

It was only in the '90s that various families realised that they'd produced a generation of dull heirs with severe risk aversion. Rather than pay out millions in compensation, the clinics simply commissioned creation of a brainbug that compensated for the genefix. And it's only in 2100 that the clinics have realised that supplying that brainbug free, in unlimited quatities, with few questions asked, may have been a mistake.

The PCs are hired by the clinics to talk those heirs down and off runaway brainbug addiction. These filthy rich, risk-addicted heirs...

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Back in the 2070s, a chain of high-end genefixing clinics announced that they'd found a set of genetic sequences correlated to compulsive gambling.

ObRealWorldLink: while working on curing Parkinson's disease. (Yes, it seems that one of the popular medications for Parkinson's turns a small but nontrivial fraction of those taking it into compulsive gamblers. Nobody seems to know why.)

[Flyndaran]

This topic relates to nearly every game winnable by brute force calculating. Chess in the 70s, checkers recently, and poker in the foreseeable future are all games NAIs will consistently win.
What's the point of playing any game when you aren't absolutely sure of equal resources between players?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

ObRealWorldLink: while working on curing Parkinson's disease. (Yes, it seems that one of the popular medications for Parkinson's turns a small but nontrivial fraction of those taking it into compulsive gamblers. Nobody seems to know why.)

They do seem kind of related in a control of initial involuntary impulses; one physical and the other mental.
It's kind of like how SSRIs often lead to impotence that cannot be helped by any known drug... and no one knows why. (Doesn't adding that last clause make anything sound like an internet conspiracy myth?)

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

It's probably significantly less common, since being able to do it with such precision requires some skill/discipline/dedication/etc.

I think you are missing the referent. It's not the card counting that happens right now (though it does) it's the ejecting the people who win too consistently. No proof is required to do that, gambling establishments are private businesses, they have a perfect right to refuse to do business with you if they falsely suspect you of cheating, or even if they just superstitiously think you are "too lucky".

[Flyndaran]

Well statistical analysis would tell if a "lucky" person is cheating to a reasonable confidence interval with greater certainty than is needed to convict people in courts.