Roulette is a simple and fun gambling game. The game involves a rotating wheel with numbers and colors on it. A ball is spun around the wheel and it lands on any of the numbers. All you have to do is make a bet on the color, number, or combination.
If the ball lands on your chosen bet, you multiply your money. If not, you lose all of it. A near 50-50 chance of doubling your money. Roulette and its variations are popular in most casinos. However, perhaps the most intriguing “Roulette” is the Russian Roulette.
Russian Roulette is nothing like standard roulette. The game goes like this: You are given a revolver gun with six chambers, but only one bullet. The revolver’s barrel is spun randomly and locked. You place the gun to your head and pull the trigger. If the gun fires blank, you get a massive prize. If you get the bullet, it’s goodbye for you. Although the price for losing is high, the odds of winning are 5 out of 6. These are excellent odds, aren’t they?
Let us play Russian Roulette…
Assume that you decide to play Russian Roulette once every month. Every time you miss the bullet, you get 1 Cr Rupees. Knowing the odds, you give it a try and press the trigger……
You miss the bullet! Hurray! You win 1 Cr Rupees (cue Amitabh Bachchan’s voice)!
Next, you are offered 2 Cr if you pull the trigger again and survive. Will you do it? The odds of winning are still 5 out of 6. Who wouldn’t want another 2 Cr, right?
I would not.
Sure, the odds of winning another 2 Cr are in my favor. But, losing means certain death. There is no “retry” option after that.
However, I have a friend who likes to take risks. He pulls the trigger again and gets a blank. After this, he is offered more money for a 3rd try. My friend takes the 3rd try and fires a blank again! He keeps on trying his luck again and again and gets a blank every time. He cannot believe his luck!
Eventually, my friend becomes a multi-millionaire! He keeps on playing the game every month until one day, after 10 tries, he gets the bullet. That’s it for him. Eventually, his luck did run out.
You might think that my friend had it coming for him. Why would anyone take such a risk when you know the consequences of losing?
I completely agree with you. My friend should not have pressed his luck.
But, he is not alone in taking unnecessary risks.
We play Russian Roulette every day
You may not realize it, but most of us play a version of Russian Roulette almost every day. We do it out in the open too. If you do not wear a seat belt or helmet while traveling in a vehicle, consider yourself a Russian Roulette player.
You must be wondering why I am linking your daily commute to the game of Russian Roulette.
The reason is quite simple.
The human body is quite fragile. Research says that an exposed human body cannot handle impacts at speeds greater than 30 kmph. We need additional protection while traveling at high speeds. This is why the seat belt and helmet were invented.
You take a risk every time you travel without wearing a seat belt or helmet. This risk is quite similar to keeping a gun to your head and pulling the trigger. You have survived all this time because the gun has fired blanks till now.
You have not faced a “bullet” i.e. a crash yet because the odds of a person dying in a crash are much lower compared to Russian’ Roulette’s 1 in 6 odds. These low odds make us overconfident. When we don’t experience a crash for days, months, or years at a stretch, we start feeling invincible.
What if you get the bullet?
The odds of getting the bullet in Russian Roulette is only 17%. However, the consequence of eventually getting the bullet is life-ending. The same applies to road crashes.
It doesn’t matter if you missed a crash in the previous one hundred or one lakh trips. Just one crash is enough to cause serious damage. The consequence of not wearing a helmet or seat belt regularly can eventually lead to your death.
Road crashes can be compared to “Fat-tail risk” or a “Black Swan event” in finance. These are events that have such a low probability of happening that people tend to forget that such events exist. But, the consequence of such events can be deadly.
How to save ourselves from the bullet?
The obvious answer to save yourself from Russian Roulette risk is to not play the game at all. I mean, why keep a gun to your head at all?
But, the same reason cannot be applied to road crashes. We can’t sit at home, can we? We need to use the road for work, college, travel, etc.
All we can do is reduce our chances of getting involved in a crash. There are two ways of doing this:
Stop taking unnecessary risks
The odds of getting involved in a crash while doing a normal overtaking are 1 in 10000. But close-cutting or high-speed overtaking maneuvers increase the odds to 1 in 1000. In other words, you are 10 times more likely to get involved in a crash if you do a risky overtaking maneuver.
The same applies to all other risky actions that we take such as wrong-side driving, overspeeding, cutting lanes, using a mobile phone while driving, etc. The riskier the maneuver, the more likely you will get in a crash.
Stop taking unnecessary risks while driving. Consider Defensive Driving. Take additional steps during different weather conditions such as winter. Also, always remain alert if you are a pedestrian.
Protect yourself from injuries if things get out of your control
Driving carefully reduces your chances of being in a crash. But does not negate the chances. Those around you may also put you at risk.
What do you do if you get involved in a crash out of your control?
If you are in a crash, the only thing you can do is to reduce the likelihood of getting injured. You can do this by:
- Wearing a helmet whenever you are on the 2-wheeler (doesn’t matter if you are the rider or pillion)
- Wearing a seat belt, even if you are sitting in the rear seat.
- Using additional safety gear for children on two-wheelers or a child car seat.
- Getting a car with multiple useful car safety features.
The above suggestions are a good place to start. However, remember that these additional safety measures does not make you invincible!
Helmets or seat belts are not going to save you in crashes at speeds over 100 kmph. That is similar to playing Russian roulette with a Bazooka and trying to keep yourself safe by wearing a bicycle helmet. You cannot escape the laws of physics!
The road is a casino
Traveling on the road is quite similar to playing in a casino. Your actions on the road are just like playing a game in the casino.
Driving safely and wearing safety equipment increases your chances of getting home safe. But, actions such as overspeeding, using a mobile phone while driving, or driving without wearing seatbelts/helmets decrease your chances drastically.
The only difference between a casino and the road is that on the roads you are not playing with your money. You are playing with your life. Choose your actions wisely and stop gambling with your life.
Always remember that your safety is in your hands.
Last Updated on November 9, 2022 by RSG