Edge Sorters Sue Foxwoods

Cheng Yin Sun, also know as Kelly, is suing Foxwoods Casino Resort, Connecticut for refusal to pay winnings. Kelly had worked with Phil Ivey in two edge sorting cases, Ivey versus Crockfords and Borgata versus Ivey. Kelly's name was spelled "Cheung Yin Sun," in the Foxwoods case's court documents. In the Borgata case, the name was spelled "Cheng Yin Sun". Borgata's attorney told Card Player that both referred to the same person.

Kelly worked with two other edge sorters, Long Mei Fang and Zong Yang Li, at Foxwoods. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $3 million. The amount includes $1.1 million in winnings and $1.6 million in gambling front money and other damages. The plaintiffs admitted to edge sorting which is a technique that will give gamblers a 6.765-percent edge over the house in baccarat.

The plaintiffs allege, "… If Foxwoods and Foxwoods management knew that plaintiffs were edge-sorting and let them practice their form of advantage play anyway - intending to keep their losses if they lost but not honor their winnings if they won - this would be intentional fraud," the day reported on 11 Aug 2014.

Quantifying Momentary Happiness with a Formula

Researchers at the University College London had constructing the formula for happiness as

The formula means happiness spikes if we win when our expectations are low but that happiness gradually fades over time. The study focus on the momentary joy that comes from winning a reward.

MRI machines were used on 26 subjects who were playing a gambling game. What they found was that it wasn’t the overall amount of money won in the game that gave the participants the greatest happiness. The formula incorporates a “forgetting factor” — which predicts that the happiness obtained from a previous win dwindles over time. Ten more trials after a win, the original win “essentially has no influence on current happiness.” These researchers were then able to use that formula to predict the general pattern of happiness in more than 18,000 people playing a similar game on a smartphone.

Extracted from Brian Resnick's article on the National Journal. The source article in pdf format can be found on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gambling counselors could use this formula to better understand gambling behaviour. The scary part is the gambling industry using this to rake more profits.