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Hot streaks or cold streaks: Many books
reinforce the idea that there are such things as
hot streaks, or hot tables. One book discusses
how roulette runs in streaks and how the player
can improve his or her chance of winning by
following these streaks. In a sense, hot and
cold streaks do seem to occur as part of the
natural clumpiness of random events. However,
the fact is that streaks are simply part of the
unpredictable nature of random events and
following them cannot help the player win.
Encourage the belief in luck: Many books either
implicitly or explicitly encourage a belief in
luck.
Problematic systems: Some books encourage
problematic betting systems such as increasing
one's bet after a loss. We have not yet come
across any book that encourages the Martingale
system — a system of doubling bets after a loss
— and some books explicitly discourage it (see
Turner, 1998, for further comments on the
Martingale system). However, we have read
several books that encourage some version of the
d'Alembert system (increasing a bet by one unit
after a loss, and decreasing it by one unit
after a win) and other incremental betting
systems. Several books encourage increasing bets
while winning. These systems are not as
dangerous as the Martingale system, but can
still lead the player into large financial
problems.
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