12-1:30pm
Not everyone agrees that we should teach gambling and probabilities to students. Some worry that we might initiate or encourage gambling addictions among a percentage of students. This is a genuine concern, but overall, the speaker believes the benefit to the majority of students outweighs the possible negatives, because everyone gambles.
You do not have to go to a casino, bingo hall or a lounge to gamble. Everybody gambles daily, be it for large, significant amounts, small change at a golf game or in relationships and job choices. The more we know about probabilities the better our chances of making favourable bets that affect our lives.
Speaker: Dennis Connolly
Dennis Connolly arrived in Canada from Sydney, Australia, September 1966. On his travels across Canada, Dennis was delayed in Lethbridge, during a snowstorm in May 1967, when five feet of wet snow fell on Southern Alberta. While waiting out the storm, he was offered a job at the newly formed University of Lethbridge and initially signed on for 2 years. 43 years later, Dennis is one of the very few original professors still teaching full time at U of L.
Along the way, Dennis received his Masters degree in Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario and his PhD from the University of York, York England.
On all his research visits to Las Vegas, the “Probability’s Theory of Loss” has been confirmed every time. Dennis has also written or co-written several publications related to probabilities and gambling.