The Gambler’s Fallacy, commonly known as the Monte Carlo Fallacy, happens when an individual assumes that a random event can or cannot happen based on the preceding events. For example, the fallacy might urge someone to believe that if a coin shows heads twice in a row, then it might land on tails on the next toss. 

To put it simply, people tend to mistakenly predict that the event that recurs frequently will occur less frequently in the future. Alternatively, it can also urge people to think that the less frequent event might recur more frequently in the future. This common tendency has brought many losses to casino players, as they attempt to predict the outcome of casino games such as the online table games available at casino platforms like Swift Casino.

These forms of thinking are, of course, fallacious, because casino games work based on luck and all outcomes are random and can’t be predicted. These events are independent of one another, and it would be illogical to make assumptions about them, even though our inbuilt intuitions may sometimes say otherwise. 

Gambler’s fallacy got its name, the Monte Carlo Fallacy, from the infamous incident that occurred in 1913 at the casino de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. The roulette wheel’s ball had landed on a black pocket multiple times. This urged the players to assume that the ball would land in a red pocket in the next spin, and they bet on the red pockets. However, the ball didn’t land on the red pocket for the next 26 spins. Reports claim that players had lost millions by then, only due to their misplaced assumptions or the Gambler’s fallacy. 

This notion isn’t limited to the domains of casino games, but also extends to other areas of life, such as the field of financial investments and childbirth. Some investors liquidate a position that has been performing well in trading sessions. They do so because of the assumption that, because of the string of positive sessions, the position is more likely to decline in the coming sessions. Similarly, people may expect the birth of a girl after a preceding line of boys. 

Gambler’s fallacy has also been recorded in certain other real-time examples, such as the time when some researchers used this notion to understand the origin of various universes. In his book, John Leslie debates that “the presence of vastly many universes very different in their characters might be our best explanation for why at least one universe has life-permitting character.” However, further debates among philosophical scholars on whether these findings are or are not fallacies. Three Stanford University students researched this subject and concluded that individuals have gambler’s fallacy retrospectively as well as for future events. They claim the studies may have both methodological and theoretical implications that must be investigated further. 

It is more than a simple, illogical error. The Gambler’s fallacy could be an imperfect way in which our cognitive system processes details.  This leads us to the representative heuristic, where our brains “even out” streaks of positive outcomes and depict them as what an ideal and fair random streak should look like, because chance is viewed as a fair and self-correcting process. Overall, people fall for the Gambler’s Fallacy because they fail to understand that there can be major fluctuations in short periods. 

How To Avoid Gambler’s Fallacy?

Although the above paragraph includes a large amount of complex jargon, the way to get out of the Gambler’s fallacy is very simple. All you have to do is let go of the belief that previous incidents are representative of the ones that may occur in the future. To do this, gamblers must be well aware of the rules of the games they place their bet. You must make yourself aware of your thought patterns and analyse if you are falling victim to the fallacy. Remind yourself that events are independent of one another. 

For example, when it comes to rolling a dice, the individual should remind themselves that the outcomes are independent of one another, and that there is no way that the dice can influence the outcome. You can further concretize this thought by explaining out loud to your friend or yourself why the dice can’t influence the outcome. However, we all know that nothing works out instantly. So if the above-mentioned techniques don’t work for you, you are allowed to jumble and tailor them in a way that is perfect for you.