It is the art of attempting to exchange something quite small and certain, for something which are large and uncertain. Gambling is big business; in the US, for instance, it is at least a $40-billion-a-year industry. The popular forms of gambling are basically national lotteries, roulette and horse racing. For these (and diffrenent types of gambling) it is relatively simple to apply statistical methods or techniques to discover the chances of winning, but in no form of gambling does the statistical analysis increase your chances of winning.