[Moneyline]

First of all, I think the majority of people who responded to your post did not read it thoroughly enough. You clearly did not say that you were going to mention anything about gambling in your paper.

That said, I think you should be aware that your topic is a rehashing of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a a branch of ethics and philosophy that states decisions should be made based on the overall "good" that you expect them to create. One utilitarian philosopher (I believe it was John Stuart Mill, but I can't remember exactly) even went so far as to propose that you could make your ethical decisions based upon the EV formula listed in your post.

Utilitarianism is not without its sticky points. Here's an example that shows some of the problems with it:

Let's say you know there is a very good chance the President is about to launch an unjust war that will likely lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths and create little positive benefit in return. You also know that if you kill the President before the invasion you will almost certainly prevent the war. Should you kill the President? According to the EV formula/utility calculation, the answer is clearly yes. However, you'd be hard pressed to find many people who would claim that murdering the President would be a moral act, even/especially among those who oppose the war build-up.

The point I'm trying to get across here is that your essay topic might not be the best idea because simply following +EV is not always the best way to make your decisions in life... and in gambling too, but that's a different topic and this post is already long enough.

Good luck with your essay...