Amarillo Slim Preston is one of the legends of the gambling world and a true master when it came to proposition gambling.

Preston — as told in his book “Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People” — once bet a man who was jailed on drug charges $1,000 that he could get a fly that was buzzing around the facility to land on one particular sugar cube after placing three on a table. The man was quick to take the bet; after all, two of the three cubes would net the man $1,000, and the odds were well in his favor.

Only a fool would’ve passed it up. But the man made a serious mistake making the bet with Preston. Before placing the cubes on the table, Preston wet his finger and stealthily touched the cube the fly needed to land on first.
Preston knew that a moist sugar cube would unleash the scent of it, making it more appealing to the fly. Sure enough, the fly landed on that exact cube, and Preston collected his money.

Now, a lot of people would call Preston’s antics outright cheating. That’s perfectly understandable, but it’s the wrong conclusion to make.

By placing the moist thumb on the cube, Preston was merely putting the odds in his favor. And for that, a gambler should have no regrets.

Preston’s sucker bet was elaborate, but easier bets can be as simple as flipping coins.

Try to find an unlucky sap and offer to pay him $25 every time he is able to successfully predict whether a flip will produce a “heads” or “tails” outcome for three consecutive flips. For every instance where he fails, he pays you $5.
Then sit back and get ready to collect the cash.

The $25 award can seem awfully tempting, and the coin flip bet cannot be beaten long term. The math dictates it.

Each coin flip produces a 50 percent chance of being predicted accurately since there are only two variables. The chances of parlaying that into a second correct prediction falls to 25 percent, and the chances of doing it three times in a row are a meager 12 percent.

Since the $5 paid to the bet-maker for every loss is 20 percent of money that’s paid to the bet-taker for every win, the bet-maker stands to make a consistent 8 percent profit on the wager.

Coming up with your own sucker bet isn’t hard to do. The key to all proposition wagering is to have the mathematics in your favor. That is, unless you happen to know more about the behavior of flies than your average Joe.

Chuck Blount | 210SA contributor