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Pascal’s wager does not make much sense even for the original case.

Why not? In the grand scheme of things it's a simple case where the upside rewards are much greater than the downside risks.

It's the same theory behind venture capitalism. Your downside risk is only the amount of money you invest, your upside reward is that you may invest in what will become the next Facebook.

Yes I know that in reality most VC investors don't beat an index fund.

But there are thousands of gods. How do you decide? Pascal was a product of his times, and could only conceive of "Atheist vs Deist". Only savages could worship false gods; that wasn't even in his mind. Today his assertion sounds feeble.

And going back to the VC analogy I referenced above, VCs invest in a lot of companies hoping One will succeed and expecting lots of them to fail.

Surely the downside risk is that you pick the incorrect deity and anger the real one causing you to be punished.

Well Zeus might be real. If you worship him there’s no cost to do so. It’s a mild inconvenience to go to Zeus temples every Thursday for the rest of your life and pray to him. If you’re wrong, no harm. Oh and apply this thousands of other gods too.

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