Dear old Polly Technic. Clearly she has little or no knowledge of gambler psychology, with her fruit machine comment especially vapid. I'm not, and never have been one for fruit machines, but I know enough people who play them to rebut 'yes, it is a legitimate, and more to the point, eyes open form of entertainment'. People who play the machines know full well that the odds are against them (bar the pondlife who lurk in pubs counting the cycles and dive in when a win is due), but do so because they enjoy getting into the second or third level games. That's for them to decide, likewise casino gaming. I regard casino gambling, fruit machines, the nags etc as far less iniquitous than the national lottery, where the state truly is encouraging, rather than merely facilitating gambling. I think it was Walter Block who noted that state lotteries in the US give a lower level of payout than numbers 'rackets'. But of course the state does this all for own good, as it is the Good Shepherd to we errant sheep.
And herewith a tyically pithy analysis from Spiked:
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CB026.htm
Labels: Toynbee
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on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 12:49 pm.
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