Standard parametric specifications of Cumulative Prospect theory (CPT) can explain why agents bet on longshots at actuarially unfair odds. However, the standard specification of CPT cannot explain why people might bet on more favoured outcomes, where by construction the greatest volume of money...

The answer to this question, based on a study of 1000 greyhound races, is 'no'. Although the efficient markets hypothesis asserts that speculative market prices optimally encapsulate all relevant information, it is found that 'Shin probabilities' (based on Shin, 1993), in which a dog's winning...

Bookmakers practise a type of product bundling. To bet a horse for a place a punter has to bet an equal amount for a win. The returns to the place component of the bet are determined by a rule of thumb. This paper examines whether the product bundling negates a betting strategy that endeavours...

This paper demonstrates that the intuitively appealing argument based on the postulated trade-off between expected return, variance and skewness of return of a risk-averse gambler does not provide an explanation of observed betting behaviour. It is shown how the expected utility of a...

The traditional explanation for the usual favourite-longshot bias in gambling is that gamblers are risk-lovers. Conditions are derived under which the bias occurs and it is shown to be consistent with a utility function that has elasticity greater than one in a certain range. With a utility...

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a utility maximising framework for criminal behaviour and to consider a Markowitz‐type utility function, centred at current wealth, for a representative criminal. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a conceptual discussion....