Luck, Skill, Law

Tishman has built lots of casinos with the help of cranes. How does Tishman heighten up the cranes as the skyscraper-casinos get higher & higher, say 700 feet into the sky?

Click the link below to see a sample of cranes at a MGM construction project:

http://www.condohotelcenter.com/images/mgm_grand-photo.jpg

"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? "
Scott Adams

"Without asking questions, gullibles remain gullible " Confucius.

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it." Stephen Vizinczey, An Innocent Millionaire

Games of luck can be defeated by TTM, but not games of skill.

Why not indeed. You're chess opponent mades a good move. You travel forward in time to see what his next move is going to be so you can counter it before it happens.

Your favorite NASCAR driver loses in a close finish with the winner. You travel back in time and sabotage the winner's car.

You really wish Foreman had beaten Ali. So, you travel back in time with the video tape of the bout, show it to Foreman before the fight and let him adjust his strategy accordingly.

One could think of a zillion examples where games of skill could be foiled by time travel. Imagine the possibilities in poker!

Boot: "They could be. One could think of a zillion examples where games of skill could be foiled by time travel. Imagine the possibilities in poker! Why not indeed. You're chess opponent mades a good move. You travel forward in time to see what his next move is going to be so you can counter it before it happens.

You really wish Foreman had beaten Ali. So, you travel back in time with the video tape of the bout, show it to Foreman before the fight and let him adjust his strategy accordingly."

My 2� is this. The time travel advantage can be canceled out each other, but not the participants' skills, i.e., Tiger Woods' golf skill can not be cheated by anybody if the time travel is being used by everyone nowadays.

Think of this: each nemesis travels forward/backward zillion times in attempt to "cheat". At the end, only the best golfer/chess master/boxer will prevail overall (the time travel advantage cancels out each other).

Boot: "Your favorite NASCAR driver loses in a close finish with the winner. You travel back in time and sabotage the winner's car."

Likewise, the winning driver and the saboteur can travel back zillion times to undo each others' actions. At the end, the best driver will still win overall (the time travel advantage cancels out each other again). Just my humble 2�, so please be easy on me now.

Thanks for the response, Boot. Of course, I meant wagering on games, rather than playing the games themselves. I don't think any government, aside from some fundamentalist ones, such as Iran or Singapore, would mind people playing keno or a lottery for pure entertainment, if it could be proven that no money is involved.

So, playing soccer, World cup or not, should be OK. But wagering on the World Cup, or the game on Saturday, means that people like Fezzik clean up --at the expense of all the casual gamblers and self-deluded suckers out there. Most countries declare that they want to "protect the average citizen", yet they allow soccer gambling (in all of Europe there are forms of legal soccer betting) but forbid games of pure chance. The average citizen stands few chances in the former, and has an inviolably equal chance with everybody else in the latter.

So there's a contradiction there.

Wouldn't it be more honest to allow games (and wagering on games) of both skill and luck? We would not have to prove, then, that poker is about skill to get it legitimized.

"Just about every country out there has some form of legalized gambling. Only the unregulated gambling is banned."

But legalized gambling on what?? Games of skill or games of chance?

When the state itself allows sports wagering, as happens all across Europe (e.g. soccer, where we have Pools in the UK, Totocalcio in Italy, etc), then the state should automatically allow also wagering in games of pure chance! Only this is consistent with the state's ostensible intention to "protect the average citizen" (by "regulating gambling").

At the same time, almost all western countries promote skill, human ability, self-improvement, etc etc, at the expense of luck, chance, randomness, because these are presumably the traits of the lazy loafing no-good citizen. Therefore, when a casino opens and is allowed by the state to offer, for example, keno and roulette, two of the most "egalitarian" games around, it should be automatically given the license to also offer games of skill, e.g. poker. Only this is consistent with every western democracy's basic tenet that a citizen should be rewarded according to his skills.

In conclusion, it's either all gambling or no gambling at all, gentlemen of the legislature.

... the only legal game is a taxable game. Every popular game has elements of both luck and skill. The distinction is specious.

Hi, Cyrus.

ETF

Only this is consistent with every western democracy's basic tenet that a citizen should be rewarded according to his skills.

I think that physically travel through time would cause too much trauma to one's self to be able to survive it.

Tachyons are hypothetical particles which travel faster than the speed of light. Based on physics formulas, they would have an imaginary mass and travel backwards in time.

Suppose tachyons were affected by the "real world" and we had a way to detect them. You could place such a dectector on your kitchen table and read the sport's page you are going to place on it tomorrow. To enhance your ability to read it, you shine a tachyon emitter on the page.

Wouldn't the probability that the tachyon particle accelerator in your basement destroys the universe in the process cancel out the advantage from knowing today's football results?

"And then, if one would want to, one would plunge into the game with one's eyes wide open -- but, importantly, without risking to lose more than what's prescribed!"

Justifying your craps habit?

"I thought the basic tenet was the only legal game is a taxable game."

You're probably joking about the taxes, but almost all states allow games to be played without any taxes being involved. From frisbees upwards.

"Every popular game has elements of both luck and skill. The distinction is specious."

I cannot think of many games of skill which do not produce any variance. But there exist many games of luck without any skill at all (when played on the square by all sides).

My posts were meant to incite a different view on the matter, i.e. that either all gambling should be allowed or all gambling should be prohibited.