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Spin City

What’s the best way to play roulette?

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Spin City

What’s the best way to play roulette?

Login to add lessons to your favorites
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What’s the best way to play roulette? As glamorized in casino ads around the world, the prospect of winning big on a spin of roulette can set hearts racing. And yet somehow the house always wins in the end!

In this lesson, students use probabilities and odds to analyze roulette payouts and debate the optimal strategy for winning the game (including not playing at all).

REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

  • In the long run, people should expect to lose money playing roulette, and casinos should expect to gain money.
  • Though not everyone does, you can use probabilities and expected value to inform life choices.

MATH OBJECTIVES

  • Describe the probability of an event given a sample space
  • Calculate expected value
  • Reason with probabilities to inform real-world decisions

This complex task is best as a culminating unit activity after students have developed formal knowledge and conceptual understanding.
Algebra 1
Probability (Beg.)
Algebra 1
Probability (Beg.)
Content Standards
Mathematical Practices

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