Skip to content
History of GamblingGames · Casinos · Law · Ideas
Updated About

People & Ideas

The mathematicians, gamblers and ideas behind the games: probability, the gambler's fallacy and the men who broke the bank.

Pascal's calculating machine, the Pascaline
People & Ideas · History

How a Gambling Problem Created Probability Theory: Pascal and Fermat

Probability theory grew out of a gambling question known as "the problem of points": when a game is stopped before anyone has won, how should the stakes be divided?

In this section

All People & Ideas stories

Guides and essays

Archive →