de ludo aleae (“Book on Games of Chance”) was instrumental in the later development of probability, but, unlike Thorp’s book, was less of an inspiration for gamblers and more for mathematicians. Another mathematician, a French Protestant refugee in London, Abraham de Moivre, a frequenter of gambling joints and the author of The doctrine of chances: or, a method for calculating the probabilities of events in play (1718) could hardly make both ends meet. One can easily count another half a dozen mathematician-gamblers, including greats like Fermat and Huygens—who were either indifferent to the
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