Perhaps chaos theory can help you gain an advantage over the house when playing casino games. But what is chaos theory and how can it be applied to live dealer casino games like roulette and blackjack? Read on to find out.
What is chaos theory?
Chaos theory offers a delightful contradiction. It’s the mathematical science of predicting an unpredictable system. It lets structure emerge where it appears there is none.
When it comes to complicated systems, chaos theory states that a very small difference in starting conditions can produce vastly different outcomes.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the “butterfly effect” – a concept developed by Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist and one of the founders of chaos theory. He stated that something as small as a butterfly flapping its wings in Asia could cause an outsize effect, such as a hurricane in the Atlantic, half a world away. More precisely, in systems that behave well – that is, without chaotic effects – small differences will result in small effects. However, with chaotic systems, like meteorology, the smallest of differences can result in chaotic effects.
You can see now how chaos theory might be applied to online casino games, which appear utterly random. In 1908, Henri Poincaré, a mathematician, noted that with casino table games like roulette, a small difference in the initial speed of the ball, which is difficult to measure accurately, might have a huge effect on where it lands.