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And when they lose all their money it becomes a tax on society.

Lest us not forget the origins of prohibition where women were collectively extremely upset about their husbands constantly going out and spending their salary on drinking instead of actually buying food and etc for the family.

I went to a casino once with a bunch of engineering students. The amount of superstition was eye opening.

Understanding math isn't enough I think it is largely emotion driven. Like a fun thing to do, not work.

I play low stakes poker occasionally, there is nothing better than a bunch of students sitting at the table :-) As an aside I think poker in casinos is the only game that you have a chance of winning at.

Ye if you play bad players or the house rakes you down.

There are also some games with accumulating jackpots that might turn ev > 1.

I know quite a few casino addicts. They all understand the math just fine. Some are actually very good at math but still can't stop themselves from betting on a spinning wheel.