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One important implication is that public
information on gambling and problem gambling
should include information about good and bad
sources of information on gambling.
Professionals in the field of problem gambling
need to somehow inform the public about the
misinformation present in some books. This paper
is a start in that direction. However,
monitoring the quality of books on gambling
would be an enormous task. The greatest
difficulty in accomplishing this goal would be
in the area of skill-oriented games. Systems for
card games are relatively easy to evaluate
because it is easy to compute the probability of
drawing each specific type of hand. Computer
simulations of these systems can be
time-consuming, but usually yield precise
answers. However, a book that offers a system of
handicapping in some sport (horseracing,
football, etc.) may or may not be providing
accurate information to their readers. The
validity of the system can only be determined
with extensive research and computer
simulations. Our interest in this field is in
protecting consumers from misinformation;
however, not in evaluating the relative merits
of one type of handicapping over another. A more
modest goal might be the publication of a list
of recommended and not recommended sources of
information on gambling.
The results indicate that a lot of written
material on how to gamble is on the market. Some
of this information is good, some of it
potentially quite harmful. A persistent
observation through this research process was
the staggering number of publications on how to
"win." Even fairly good books describe
themselves as offering "winning strategies."
This is not surprising; it is hard to imagine
people buying a book on "how to lose."
Unfortunately, this likely presents a barrier to
getting good information out to the public. We
suspect that would-be gamblers are more likely
to read something entitled "How to win" than
something entitled "How not to lose too much."
Can truth compete with lies in an open market?
Is it possible to encourage the publishing
industry to publish books that are more
accurate?
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