Dear Mark: I am sure you saw the news. Quicken Loans is offering to pay anyone filling out a perfect bracket for March Madness a billion dollars. Do you think anybody will ever fill out a perfect bracket? Jimmy K.
Nada chance, Jimmy! Zippo, zero, zilch!
The $1 billion prize is safe; and believe me, Quicken Loans knows the math of such a feat. The Quicken Loan honchos, along with the underwriter of the challenge, Berkshire Hathaway, fully realize that filling out a perfect bracket and predicting the correct result of all 63 games is one in two to the 63rd power, which just happens to be one in nine million trillion, that’s 1/ 9,000,000,000,000,000,000. It is easier to hit the Powerball lottery solid on two consecutive draws.
Take for example, last year. With a kazillion entries in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, there was not one entry that remained perfect heading into the round of 32.
Sure, filling out a chart makes for good fodder at the water cooler. In my son’s case, he attended U of Cincinnati, graduated from Michigan, and is now in grad school at Duke, so he has three contenders that will make the show, and at least he gets to fill out his bracket with fervent allegiance. But, Jimmy, let’s get something straight here. You, I, and my son are never going to win. No one is.
Well, actually, that is not entirely true. The winner here is Quicken Loans for all the publicity it’s getting. The amount of FREE media exposure from this marketing maneuver has to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Dear Mark: A friend of mine recently passed away. He had a large amount of casino comps. Do they go into his estate and to his heirs? Bob M.
In its strictest form, Bob, a "will" is limited to real property while a "testament" applies to
the disposition of personal property. So, is the distribution of your friend’s personal property in the form of casino comps and used by a beneficiary legitimate? Most likely not.
The whole idea behind comps, Bob, is to get you into the casino and gamble. YOU are the gambler they are targeting, not Aunt Gertie. If the departed acquired room, food, and beverage (RFB) comps, show tickets, and rounds of golf to induce continued play, kinfolk can’t surreptitiously use the deceased’s freebies.
Somewhere in itsy bitsy fine print on just about every club card brochure, the wording along these lines exists: NON TRANSFERABLE! Members may not distribute, lend or in any way allow another person to use their card.
These revocable perks-for-play, Bob, are a privilege granted by such-and-such casino specifically in exchange for THAT player’s past and future action. Most casinos are going to want to see a photo identification of the person trying to redeem comps, and it had better match with the individual whose name is related to that account. A copy of an obituary won’t cut it.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: Gambling itself will only end when human nature has changed completely and there are no more bets to win. -Harold S. Smith Sr.
For more gambling information, check out Mark at http://markpilarski.com