Dice Rolling (Math Game)

Question

You wager an amount W on the roll of two die. Any 1's win 100 dollars, and any 5's win 50 dollars each, otherwise you lose. For what value of W would this be a fair game?

I'm not so concerned with the answer, mostly I just want to know how to set this up.

By 'fair game', do you mean the probability of winning being 0.5? — StatsSorceress, Feb 28 '17 at 14:50
Fair game means that the expected loss is zero. Obviously the probability of winning is going to be $\frac13$. — MJD, Feb 28 '17 at 14:59

MJD · Answer 1 · 2017-02-28T19:26:22.350

0

Calculate the expected value of one play. This will be an expression involving the known payoffs, their probabilities, and the cost $w$. Find the value of $w$ for which the expected value is zero.

edited Feb 28 '17 at 19:26

answered Feb 28 '17 at 15:01

MJD

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What I did to get the expected value was this... 100(2/12)+50(2/12)+0(8/12)=25 however I feel like this is not correct – Jon Jones Mar 01 '17 at 17:03
That is not correct. Make a table of each of the 36 possible rolls, and the payoff for that roll. Average the 36 payoffs. This is the expected payoff from one roll. – MJD Mar 01 '17 at 22:57

Dice Rolling (Math Game)

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