gambling

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/gaming/2003/apr/25/514996239.html Since when does education trump freedom?

Say you have a dowser. You give him 99 buckets of sand and one with water in it. If he finds the water 9 times out of ten he wins a million bucks. Isn't that a wager with lousy odds and a $0 to $1,000,000 pay off? Would this be illegal if you followed the letter of the law?