Gambling is more than its
conventional meaning might suggest.
Gambling is any activity
which holds certain risk. Certain risk is the substantial prospect of loss.
Romney gambled when he ran
against the President. His loss was predictable.
Many political alliances
are gambles.
All professions of belief
based on supposition rather than proven outcomes are gambles.
The narrow meaning of
gambling may or may not involve risk. The house never loses.
The assurance of loss in a
casino means that what we call gambling is really contriving to lose.
The only exceptions to
losing in casinos are one shot wins and games of skill.
The only games of skill in
casinos that are not certain losses are aided card-counting and various forms
of poker.
Aided card-counting relies
on a capacity to accurately determine the future prevalence of cards with the
highest values.
Aided card-counting
involves a skilled counter who simply signals a player when cards are running
well.
Even skilled card-counting
can fail and risks detection. The use of
shoes with many decks is a strong defense against it.
Poker is indeed a game of
skill. But it depends on lesser players participating and losing money.
The stock market and other
forms of investment exist on the certainty of loss combined with the historic
tendency of the market as a whole to rise.
The prevalence of lotteries
validates popular willingness to make the certainty of loss acceptable public
policy.
Problem gambling is almost
universally related to the actual loss of money in games of chance.
The problem in problem
gambling is the gambler - his or her need to experience loss.
The experience of loss is
not entirely negative. Nor is the experience of winning. Nor is the experience
of extended runs of luck.
Online games provide the
experience of winning and losing without any risk of money.
For every casino gambler
who loses real money, there are similarly inclined players happy playing at no
risk online.
I have been through the
gamut of gambling and now enjoy playing games online that risk no loss.
I remain insistent that my
wife who has never placed a bet is the real gambler in our family for having
taken a chance on me.
Anyone who feels compelled
to throw money away gambling should either avoid it seek help.
Compulsive gamblers need to
examine and discard past defeats and experience a new beginning - daily.
