Adding to that - it's the flaw of averages at work in many of those examples. The listed "expected value" in some of those examples could never actually be a re

Adding to that - it's the flaw of averages at work in many of those examples. The listed "expected value" in some of those examples could never actually be a real outcome of the examples - it is completely rational to opt to take a 500 loss rather than risk a 1000 loss if you have, say, only 750 to your name and cannot be overdrawn (see debtors prison or whatever incentive one would like to imagine). The expected value of the $500 loss only happens in one option. In the $0 or $1000 loss, if you had repeated draws over time it would indeed trend towards an average of a $500 loss but in a single draw situation, you can never achieve the average so you absolutely must view it as different from the flat $500 loss and compare that to your imagined circumstances in this thought exercise.