One opinion stated at the conference of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers held at ANU in 1980 was that mathematics teachers should have been ashamed of themselves for failing to teach their students how the best possible returns could be made in gambling.
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On this day 42 years ago, The Canberra Times reported that a mathematics master at North Sydney Girls High School, Mr Hans Eisler, said teachers should incorporate more probability and statistics into their lessons as they are useful subjects in achieving the best returns in gambling.
Mr Eisler also believed classes should have been set up for adult gamblers so they could better their odds.
Between 1977 and 1978 Australians had spent $13,400 million on gambling, rising from fifth to second highest on the list of the world's greatest gambling countries over the previous 20 years.
Mr Eisler said many Australians were being short-changed due to lack of mathematics understanding. Many gamblers with poor math would have the tendency to overestimate infrequent events and underestimate frequent events.
Mr Eisler believed that had these gamblers developed better mathematics skills they would have been more successful. He admitted that he was a gambler himself, but said he only gambled to prove his theories.
