Can you explain what you feel playing a game that will always make you lose money no matter the strategies and anything else? Very curious
Weirdly I seem to do quite well in the casino and often have evening where I leave the casino 2-3X ahead of where I started.
My luck at football betting is terrible, I'm even worse at horses.
When you're up it's quite the thrill. You weather the downs as a cost associated with the particular vice.
I enjoy "emotionally hedging" sports events - if I want X to win I bet on Y
Do you play any other things (sports or games)? Do you not ever go for low percentage / high risk actions if only for the pleasure of occasionally see them come good?
Think bicycle kick in football, haymaker in boxing, high stakes play in poker, 1-frame combos in Street Fighter, technically difficult riffs in a musical jam.
I feel your line of questioning locks money and all its uses to rationality. Money can be an instrument for pleasure and for many, risk-seeking is a pleasurable activity.
It's really fun to spend money that you feel just fell from the sky. If you employ the right strategy you will still come out ahead 40-45% of the time, and those times can be quite memorable and fun.
You will definitely take losses in the long run but if you play well within your means, they won't have any impact on your life.
Is betting your job or an entertainment for you? If you see it as a job, a means to make money, I feel like that's unhealthy.
When I go see a movie, even if the money is "lost", I still enjoy it. You go to the movie for the emotion it makes you feel, just like you bet for the emotion it makes you fell. It's the trill, the chance of seeing big wins.
At the end of the day, casino can be actually quite cheap if you don't bet too high and there's free drinks too usually ;).
Sure that emotion is simulated, you won't actually win money. The same is true for the emotions you feel during a movie. The fear you may feel in a horror movie isn't real, you aren't in any danger.
In both case though the emotion is really there and that's what you pay for.
That's exactly why loot boxes are essentially gambling even though you get no monetary gains from it. It plays on the sames emotions, the same thrill.
Everyone is attractive, powerful and sophisticated. People look on, impressed at his daring. Everyone has a bow tie on. Beautiful women hand him free drinks with a smile. The atmosphere isn't even slightly tinged with the desperation and regret of gambling addicts.
I can understand losing $50 a day to live out that fiction.
I have no idea whether any casinos offer that experience - the gambling things I've seen in my country have all been far more tawdry.