-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us>
>In other words, people get something for their money, a commodity, fun and
>relaxation. I even developed an analysis ( big surprise, right ?) of what
the >mentality is. In a word, maybe the average person is able to treat
money like >it is unimportant when they gamble
I am a moralist on gambling, and having been a union organizer in the casinos of Las Vegas, that moralism was just reinforced. Casinos are evil, evil shit that drain money mostly from people who sure as hell don't look like they are having a lot of fun, but look more like drugged zombies pulling the lever of jackpot machines over and over until their money is gone.
And while there are no doubt many pleasures from gambling, from the high of winning to the atmosphere for some, there is no doubt that psychologically most gambling addiction also comes from a very sad need to LOSE money. The need to shop at times has this quality of finding fulfillment in emptying a bank account, but gambling has it in its pure form. Lots of Freudian and other explanations of why this need to lose money exists (my favorite is the more general analysis of the need to lose money in Norman O. Brown's LIFE AGAINST DEATH based on his weird Freudian-Marxist analysis), but the need is there in its pathetic glory at casinos.
A basic Marxist belief is derived from seeing one group of rich people getting even rich while another group gets much poorer as a sure sign of exploitation. Well, Hilton Hotel back in 1989 when I was there in Nevada made more money from its three casinos than all its other hotels combined. And these still were nickle and diming their employees and fighting the union for every dollar.
Just evil, rich mother--------- of the absolute worst sort.
--Nathan Newman