Gambling

[azurelunatic]

Dad always called gambling "the math tax". I agree with this. So I shan't be doing anything, shall we say, stupid on the outing tonight.

Comments

[wibbble]

Well, the other way of looking at it is that you're paying for entertainment. You put in your money, you play the game, you have the thrill of winning back an average of 50-70% of what you put in, and then you go home.

It's when people go in expecting to /make/ money rather than spend it that the problems arise.

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

It's very much not a way to make money.

If I go in with $20? It's because that's the fee I pay to stare at the mesmerizing lights for an hour.

That's all I ask.

But I always walk in with just the cash I can loose, and the rest of my $ locked in a car. No impulse increases. Just $20.

[azurelunatic]

You know, I think the new generation of MMORPG players might well be bred and/or trained to be more resistant to video-based "the house always wins" devices -- after all, where most people are used to monetary gain from work done at the computer, MMORPG players know that you pays your dues, you plays your game...

[azurelunatic]

They are indeed shiny.

[azurelunatic]

I figure I spent in the neighborhood of $45 -- excellent food. Excellent.

[wibbble]

Possibly, although MMORPG players only represent a tiny fraction of the general population.

It's really easy to forget just how unusual people like us actually are. Most people don't play, and wouldn't want to play, computer games - hell, most people don't have a computer, and if they do and they have internet access, it's dialup...

[azurelunatic]

Point. I work around people who remind me that they, and not I, are the average ones.