Free money

I just got $90 from BCLC (British Columbia Lottery Corperation) totally risk free. BCLC is the government charted lottery company in BC. They just started a new online casino business. In order to attract customers, they give out $100 token any new registered customer who deposit $100 into the account. As an engineer who had learn probability, I know those are free money at once. I can easily cash out the $100 by playing sicbo (big-small), betting on big and small at the same time. I lost a few games to triples, but since I only bet a small mount each time, I still have $90 out of the $100 after all the tokens are converted to cash.

I wonder how much money BCLC loss by luring customer this way. BC has 4.5 million population, times $100 per person, that comes to $4.5 billion. According to BCLC’s balance sheet, it only has $3.1 billion of net asset. If everyone in BC did exactly what I did, take the money and never come back again, we can bankrupt BCLC! Maybe anti-gambling organization should mobilize everyone get their $100 free money. What’s a better way to fight against gambling by bankrupting the casino?

On top of that, I suspect how many customers will BCLC get for their online casino. Gambling in a real casino, at least you can feel the physical atmosphere of a casino. Gambling in an online casino, it’s like just playing a crappy video game with poor graphics. Your money only shows up as a number on screen and all you can do is just making a few mouse clicks. What’s the fun of that? Since the odd is against gamblers, you already lost the moment you bet. Why would anyone want to lose money by clicking the mouse? I can click the mouse for a lot less money. Any reasonable mind would not find any amusement from gambling in online casino.

5 thoughts on “Free money”

  1. You should have subtracted those <18 from 4.5 million.

    But apart from that, I complete agree with you way of arbitraging. Once I went to a casino in US on Peterpan, all passengers were given some 泥碼 which worths more than the bus ticket. You can easily make $$ by going to the Casino everyday!

  2. Ah, I thought I can play too but saw the player agreement required “you are a permanent resident of British Columbia”. Have you help Pat with this free money?

    For clear and calculating minds like yourself and other non-gambling engineers, this may be a easy $50 (on average).

    But, unfortunately, many more online gamblers, once they have the account setup, they will end up playing more and losing to Playnow. Online gambling is a big business and sadly many people have lost a lot more than they can afford online.

    1. Actually, the absolute minimum risk free return for $100 is $97.5 playing Baccarat.

      But why would anyone play after they have set up the account? There is just no way you can win according to probability theory. If you can’t win, what’s the point of playing?

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