On Jan 2, 2009, at 10:32 PM, Mark Iverson wrote:
Horace wrote:
"The final player remaining after all the 19 others go broke would
be given a prize that depends on
how many bets he can make from his remaining purse before going
broke. That would be a pretty
illuminating contest, don't you think?"
Gee, if that isn't a loaded question, I don't know what is! :-)
Yep. 8^)
If you've only got $100, and you drop it all into a slot machine,
and thus are now 'broke', that's
your fault, not the casinos! That sounds way to liberal a
mentality for me -- absolving the person
from all responsibility for their actions. No one was holding a
gun to their head forcing them to
pull the handle...
No, I don't think it'd be all that illuminating. Gaming is just
another form of entertainment.
Some peole spend $100+ to go see some concert that I wouldn't give
a dime to go see. Who am I to
judge what should be allowed for entertainment? When you go to a
movie, or a concert, or the Indy
500, do you get a portion of your money back? Hell no! You're
just as 'broke' as the person
playing slots… perhaps more so. First, you have the option of
walking away at any time, and second,
at least with the slots, there is some chance that you'll walk away
with much MORE that you started
with!!! Can you say that about the Indy spectator or the movie-
goer???? I don't think so!
Say, the above sounds like a cigarette company argument! No one was
holding a gun to cigarette smokers heads making them smoke. The
argument I make is that the customers are not adequately informed.
When retired teachers go to Vegas for the first time and lose all
their retirement savings trying to avoid the disgrace of early losses
and get back even, that's not like a trip to the movies or the Indy
500. That is not entertainment. The main difference between the
informing of cigarette smokers and the informing of gamblers is it is
much more difficult to fully inform the latter, and much easier to
provide deliberately misleading information. The same apparently
goes for juries.
And just for the record, I may live in a gaming town, but I CHOOSE
not to gamble... Well, most of
the time! Some of the best places to eat are in the casinos! ;-)
I've heard in some places there is good food and lots of it. Ahhh
that hits my weak spot! 8^)
I can sit and have a nice dinner
while watching everyone else go 'broke'...
-Mark
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
