Well, in this case, it's not so mind-boggling. People do not generally associate water with "poisoning", as attested by the usual rash of emergencies in the Grand Canyon ("But I was drinking a lot of water!"). But moving on to your general point:
> In a broader sense, this also illustrates the genius of "casino capitalism."
> People will put up with almost anything, accept any crap and indignity
> dished out to them by the powers that be, as long as they think they can be
> winners of some glitzy exotic prize. It does not matter that they do not
> have what most of us consider life necessities - decent housing, health
> care, education, social safety net - the prospect of winning the glitzy
> prize trumps them all.
Have to be a winner, as Fussell writes (in a manner that is sure to appeal to you ;-)):
=== begin quote ===
Two motives urge middle-class and prole fans to obsession with their
sports. One is their need as losers to identify with winners, the need
to dance and scream "We're number one!" while holding an index finger
erect. In addition to this appeal through vicarious success, sports are
popular for middles and proles to follow because they sanction a flux
of pedantry, dogmatism, record-keeping, wise secret knowledge, and
pseudo-scholarship of the sort usually associated with the
"decision-making" or "executive" or "opinion-molding" classes.
<...>
A taxi driver in St.Louis defended the Vietnam War by saying,
"We can't be a pitiful, helpless giant. We gotta show 'em we're
number one". "Are you number one?" Studs Terkel asked him. Pause.
"I'm number nothin'," he said.
=== end quote ===
At the risk of adopting the very reductionism I find most repulsive, I guess we chalk some of it down to Darwinian instincts. However, rather than cater to that instinct in order to increase our rolls, perhaps we can find and encourage opposing (but similar) instincts, while continuing to lay the ground to free us from our Darwinian roots.
--ravi