Station Platform Roulette

Builders of train and subway station platforms conspire with casino operators to build stations with numbers painted near the platform edge. Passengers stand on the number to place a bet and win if the door opens there.

This scheme instantiates "quotidian betting," the practice of expressing one's degree of certainty or boredom by placing small bets on somewhat predictable everyday phenomena. Quotidian betting opportunities include whether an umbrella is needed, the presence of select personages in the park, and the spelling of obscure words. The point is not to squander money but to reward memorizing, forecasting, and accurate expressions of certainty.

I present the idea of quotidian betting with an example because I suspect we all do this at train stations anyway. Little bets like this are really common, and I'm definitely not the first to think of it. But I only bet with close friends since it would be awkward to propose the bet to a stranger on the platform. I suggest that a mediating authority paint the numbers on the platform and handle the organization of these little bets.