The saying, What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is the condensed version of:
Every year people go to Las Vegas, and the billions of dollars they lose gambling … stays in Vegas.
The house has a built in advantage on all the games. The gambler who plays long enough … will lose. The Smart Gambler plays the games with the smallest House Edge like Baccarat or Craps. The Idiot Gambler goes straight to Keno or the slot machines. But lowering the odds doesn't mean you are going to win. It just means you might win some of the time, but overall you'll lose more slowly.
Commercial casinos gross about 34.6 billion yearly, Native American casinos rake in bout 18.5 billion, and state lotteries do a little better at 19.1 billion. Add it all up and you're looking at 72.2 billion dollars lost every year by people who don't seem to care that all the games are rigged in favor of The House.
The House Edge. Everyone knows about it. Everyone knows the rules. Gambling is a consensual act. If I gamble and lose … I have no one to blame but myself. Y'see I knew it was a rigged game before I bet my first dollar. And knowing the House Edge ... I would rather wager my life's savings in Las Vegas than vote in an American presidential election. At least I'd have a chance of winning in the casino.
Now that I've reached the ripe old age of “I'm too old for this shit” I think it's about time I yanked the remaining bits of political dissonance out of my skull and drag them out in the back yard and drown them in the goldfish pond.
Euphemistically speaking of course.
I don't have a goldfish pond.
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