GAMBLING SUPERSTITIONS. 371 



running. It must be remembered that so long as 

 the numbers continue large the probability that about 

 half will toss ' head' at the next trial amounts almost 

 to a certainty. For example, about 140 toss 'head' 

 sixteen times running : now, it is utterly unlikely that 

 of these 140, fewer than sixty will toss 'head' yet a 

 seventeenth time. But if the above process failed on 

 trial to give even one person who tossed ' heads ' 

 twenty times running an utterly improbable event 

 yet the trial could be made four or five times, with 

 practical certainty that not one or two, but thirty or 

 forty, persons would achieve the seemingly incredible 

 feat of tossing ' head ' twenty times running. Nor would 

 all these thirty or forty persons fail to throw even three 

 or four more ' heads.' 



Now, if we consider the immense number of trials 

 made at gambling-tables, and if we further consider 

 the gamblers as in a sense typified by our ten millions 

 of coin-tossers, we shall see that it is not merely 

 probable but absolutely certain that from time to time 

 there must be marvellous runs of luck at roulette, 

 rouge, et noir, hazard, faro, and other games of 

 chance. Suppose that at the public gaming-tables on 

 the Continent there sit down each night but one 

 thousand persons in all, that each person makes but 

 ten ventures each night, and that there are but one 

 hundred gambling nights in the year each supposi- 

 tion falling far below the truth there are then one 

 million ventures each year. It cannot be regarded as 

 wonderful, then, that among the fifty millions of 



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