That's entertainment

Some of the guys in our office just got back from a programming conference that was held in Las Vegas. They were busy going to lectures and taking classes most of the time but they did have a little free time to wander around and try the entertainment but they all came back with their wallets intact. They were smart and allocated just a small amount to spend on the entertainment there. Yes, I'm calling the gambling entertainment. That's because I look at it as just spending money. I believe anyone who goes there and assumes they'll make money is deluding themselves. If you enjoy playing the games and like the glitter around you, I guess you can be entertained but you pay for it. I never go to see a movie assuming I'm going to come out with more money than I had when I went in. That's entertainment.

It reminds me of a time I went to Atlantic City for a conference. We also wanted to see what it was like in the big gambling casinos and three of us pooled $10 each to see what it was like to play roulette. One of us was a mathematician and he had a "system" he wanted to try. This was back in the 1980's and I forget most of the details but I do remember that we never saw that $10 again. We won a few times but we lost a lot more times. I can't remember if we ever got ahead but if we did, it wasn't by much. We walked around and looked at the sights. There was a huge variety of people there and I probably could have been just as entertained by not spending any money and just watching the people. Even just the expressions on their faces was entertaining. They went from people who were smiling and just enjoying themselves to people with intense, gotta win expressions to people with lost, desperate looks. I wanted to just grab those people and drag them out but of course you can't do that.

But the most interesting thing to me was our own discussions as we were losing our money (oh, OK - spending our money on the entertainment). We started to justify our loses. "We were doing pretty well until they changed the croupier [the guy who spins the ball around the wheel]," we said. "If we'd have stopped then, we might have done better at another wheel." or "We didn't follow the system exactly when we won." or "If we had a little more money, we could have come back." That last one is the killer. That's the one that makes this not really entertainment. It's just asking for trouble. And this is why I hope our state never legalizes casinos. The lotteries and scratch tickets are bad enough. We don't need to make it worse.