Heads I win Tails I lose

           During my last visit to Vegas in the U.S.A. I met a man who was an inveterate gambler. He took out a coin from his pocket and said to me, ‘Heads I win tails I lose. I’ll bet half the money in my pocket.

          He tossed the coin, lost and gave me half the money in his pocket. He repeated the bet again and again each time offering half the money in his pocket. 

          The game went on for quite some time. I can’t recollect exactly how long the game went on or how many times the coin was tossed, but I do remember that the number of times he lost was exactly equal to the number of times he won.

          What do you think did he, on the whole, gain or lose?

Answer: The man must have lost. And the longer he went on the more he would lose – with simple calculations. We can draw this conclusion.

 In two tosses he was left with three quarters of his money.

In six tosses with twenty – seven sixty- fourths of his money, and so on.

Immaterial of the order of the wins and losses, he loses money, So long as their number is in the end equal.