Re: How to flip a coin over e-mail?

From: Mark Brader (msb_at_vex.net)
Date: 06/17/04 

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:10:28 -0000

Norm Dresner:
> Back in the '40s and '50s, the so-called Numbers Rackets in at least NYC and
> surrounding areas used two digits in the # of shares of stock sold on the
> NYSE the previous day.

Two digits? I thought it was 3 digits, giving odds of 999:1 against
winning, but being paid off at only 600:1.

> IIRC the Daily News and the Daily Mirror obligingly printed this
> information on the front page of at least the early morning editions
> every day.

Similarly, there used to be -- maybe still are -- betting pools in Canada
based on the low digits of the time of the last goal in certain hockey
games. The full details of the game would be printed in the papers, but
TV reports would finish by explicitly mentioning the time of the last
goal. I also remember a minor scandal when it was noticed that the
timekeeper at the Montreal Forum was failing to stop the clock promptly
when a goal was scored, because he had been bribed to stop it on odd or
even numbers in the particular game... 

-- 
Mark Brader, Toronto, msb@vex.net
              "A system which depends upon the secrecy of its algorithm
               is effectively a single-key code."  -- William Brown II
My text in this article is in the public domain.

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