Games v. Gambling

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie

ha! I work at a casino; specifically I deal table games. Whatever the skill would be, you would have to slap a penalty on it to represent the house edge. Any casino table game you play has this and it produces a very real mathematical edge against you. Depending on the game, certain games actually have better odds (eg: craps has better odds than roulette) so I might represent that with a numerical penalty. It can't just be an unmodified skill roll; not with the way those games are designed.

I would suggest that one way to handle this is to have a required margin of success to break even. For a modest house percentage, you could say that you need to succeed by a margin of 1; with less than that, the house eats your winnings.

[Black Leviathan]

I think of the distinction in these terms:

Gaming - Is a skill of playing games. It involves understanding the rules, variations, history, and win strategy of games. If you're playing a game you're familiar with it gives you knowledge of ways to win, if you're playing an alien game it gives you ways to interpret it's strategy based on games you know. It is useful for peculiar challenges, impressing people in parlor settings, convincing wise men to remain at the Go board longer and share their knowledge.

Gambling - Is a skill of playing people in the context of a game. It involves understanding odds and variations, psychology and cash strategy of games. So long as you grasp the rules of the game you are able to assess the risk of a decision in the game and the pay-out for your wager. It can also within the context of the game allow you to understand if someone's behavior is inconsistent with their strategy or if their wins are inconsistent with the odds. It's useful for winning money, spotting a bluff or a cheater, getting into a private card game.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I would suggest that one way to handle this is to have a required margin of success to break even. For a modest house percentage, you could say that you need to succeed by a margin of 1; with less than that, the house eats your winnings.

Note: this thread is a necro from 2013, but in any case:

For most relatively simple games of chance, a 'success' at gambling will give you the optimal betting method. For games with a true house edge, this just means you lose money at a rate that corresponds to the house edge, while a fail means you lose money faster than that. These gambling rolls are generally quite easy.

Some games can actually be beaten under specific conditions, in which case a successful Gambling roll (often at a substantial penalty) will cause you to gain money, a failure will still cause you to lose money. Blackjack is a classic example of this.

[Black Leviathan]

I think of the distinction in these terms:

Gaming - Is a skill of playing games. It involves understanding the rules, variations, history, and win strategy of games. If you're playing a game you're familiar with it gives you knowledge of ways to win, if you're playing an alien game it gives you ways to interpret it's strategy based on games you know. It is useful for peculiar challenges, impressing people in parlor settings, convincing wise men to remain at the Go board longer and share their knowledge.

Gambling - Is a skill of playing people in the context of a game. It involves understanding odds and variations, psychology and cash strategy of games. So long as you grasp the rules of the game you are able to assess the risk of a decision in the game and the pay-out for your wager. It can also within the context of the game allow you to understand if someone's behavior is inconsistent with their strategy or if their wins are inconsistent with the odds. It's useful for winning money, spotting a bluff or a cheater, getting into a private card game.