When I was a student I shared a house with a man who started playing backgammon at a casino. To start off with he won hugely but then suddenly started consistently losing. To me this was so obviously fixed that he should have cut his losses but by that time he'd decided he'd got too far in (this was only a matter of weeks) and had to try to get the money back by keeping going, with the predictable result that he kept losing.
I think what makes gambling distasteful to me is that as a witch, a former mental health professional and an INFJ I'm pretty good at predicting the future. I also know that predicting the future isn't rocket science. Given these weather conditions that horse will run like that. That football team won't win, and I'll tell you right now we're not likely to have a white Christmas. Betting works by you gambling on something and the bookie works out the risk. To my surprise there are actually people who are professional gamblers who make a good living, and obviously the bookies absorb that risk to make the other punters think that it could happen to them. In reality of course they are supporting the professional gamblers.
Insurance of course is the same exercise reversed. The insurer bets that something won't happen based on the likelihood and risk. Again it's not rocket science, and of course if you're a young man you're likely to crash your car. See, I said predicting the future was not rocket science. The only difference is that where the bookies make you think some good thing could happen, insurers want you to worry about bad things happening so that you will essentially gamble on them happening. House insurance is just you betting that your house will burn down and getting the payout if it does.
If this sounds like a scam it's because it's definitely got one foot there.
Similarly I have discovered that casinos use all sorts of tricks which aren't that different from the tricks supermarkets use, to keep the punter in there and keep him betting. No windows, free gifts, disorienting in time and even the carpet are among them. I'd just assumed the people who furnished casinos had no taste but the carpet is to create a prison of sensory perceptions.
It's no wonder I don't do betting when I'm so cynical attuned to the nature of the risk assessment and psychological tricks and can do the risk assessment myself and conclude it wouldn't give me pleasure and I'm unlikely to profit from it. The reason the subject is appearing here is that I've only just realized that this in itself is a gamble and after my risk assessment I've decided the risk isn't worth it. If gambling is about risk and prediction rather than 'chance' then I'm not giving myself good odds so am not making bets.
... which is in itself a gamble! And I haven't lost any money!
Oh go on, I know you want some tic tac men:
I loathe every time I have to enter a gambling. The reek and heaviness of desperation is overwhelming. Its where many dreams go to die. In Japan, the most common form of gambling is by playing Pachinko machines and the Pachinko places are owned the Yakuza. The Yakuza are not as scary as they are depicted in movies and such, but it's still best not to owe them money.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's exactly what it felt like with my housemate, he was actually desperate. I'll take your word for it on the Yakuza (gulp).
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