A sucker bet is a gambling wager in which the expected return is significantly lower than the wager(s).
Variants include:
- Parlay: One bet ticket written with at least two wagers (all must win for the ticket to cash).
- Teaser: A sucker wager that allows bettors to add and subtract points from posted odds.
- Exotic: Any wager other than a straight bet or parlay (also referred to as a proposition or prop).
For example, the chances of correctly guessing the order of the final 3 cards of Faro is usually 1 in 6, yet the bet only pays 4:1 or 5:1. Taking insurance in Blackjack is also often considered a sucker bet.
The name originates in that sucker bets are often created to lure inexperienced players into betting against large odds, blinded by the offer of "fast money".
Famous quotes containing the words sucker and/or bet:
“As artists they’re rot, but as providers they’re oil wells; they gush. Norris said she never wrote a story unless it was fun to do. I understand Ferber whistles at her typewriter. And there was that poor sucker Flaubert rolling around on his floor for three days looking for the right word.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“While we were thus engaged in the twilight, we heard faintly, from far down the stream, what sounded like two strokes of a woodchopper’s axe, echoing dully through the grim solitude.... When we told Joe of this, he exclaimed, “By George, I’ll bet that was a moose! They make a noise like that.” These sounds affected us strangely, and by their very resemblance to a familiar one, where they probably had so different an origin, enhanced the impression of solitude and wildness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)