Gambling is a zero-sum game. Winner takes all; loser loses all he or she has in the game. Gambling is indiscriminate in this win/loss setup. Done legally, it’s no respecter of persons, whether we’re talking buying lottery tickets or playing slots or table games at a casino or falling prey to the online Daily Fantasy Sports games. Someone wins, and someone loses.
When you gamble a dollar, your hope is you will beat the very long-odds against you. And of course, the house -- or the computer -- is always stacked against you. Always. Gambling wouldn’t be a multi-billion-dollar business if that weren’t true. The hope for a dollar is such sadly misplaced hope -- and it so rarely stops at one dollar. For far too many -- and this is especially true for those least able to afford to lose even a dollar -- trying to buy hope for a ...