"Mathematica notebooks provide the perfect media for presenting results, with calculations and graphics right there on the screen. States typically use the games to raise funds for various public projects, so when we propose a new game, state officials, attorneys, marketing professionals, and mathematicians all have to like the odds," says Richard. "Notebooks let me show them exactly how I came up with the probabilities."

You Wanna Bet?

Doesn't everyone want to win a million dollars? Not always, according to Fred Richard, game developer for Automated Wagering International, Inc. While some may go for the big money, others choose better odds for a smaller payout. Some prefer the lotto (as in France, for example), while others like to pick numbers (in the eastern U.S., for instance). Meanwhile, betting on sports seems to be big in Russia, Norway, and Brazil.

Richard uses Mathematica to help design games that will be successful according to a particular region--whether in a specific U.S. state or in countries throughout the world.

"Most recently I used Mathematica to put together the theoretical probabilities for a new style of jackpot game for one of our state clients," Richard explains. "We fit data to a logistic curve function to determine what kind of sales response we can expect. We match regional preferences, customs, and other factors with the income appeal of different games."

Key features of Mathematica used:

• Numeric--statistics
• Graphic--curve fitting
• Notebook--for client presentations
• Other--combinatorics package, discrete functions