[TrueBritt]

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We provide the same service that Casinos do: entertainment. That's why people play blackjack, and that's why they play poker. They play for fun.

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Sure, and they can play for fun against other people who are playing for fun, or they can play for fun against people who are constantly studying to improve at taking their money. This "we provide a service" line is pretty amusing to me. Remove all the 2+2ers from Party Poker and you'll certainly have more enjoyable and less costly games for the fish. Expert players ruin the experience just enough to make money, but not enough to scare the fish away entirely, and they use variance as a smoke screen. Let's not kid ourselves.

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Like casinos and all other service businesses, we charge for the service we provide. That service is competition, gamble, and fun. That is, competition and gamble provide the fun for the fish. Fun (i.e. entertainment) is what they are buying. The fish could easily decrease the competition in their game by dropping down a level or two. But that would decrease the gamble, too. On the whole, they would have less fun, so they stay at the higher level, where they are destined to lose over the long run. But that's ok because they are there for fun, and their loses have simply paid for their fun.

It is common knowledge that the casino has the edge in all table games. Yet millions of people play them anyway. Why? Because gambling is fun. Winning gives us a rush of euphoria. Apparently, for many people, that short-term rush is worth the long-term losses that are inevitable in those games. The same is true for the losing poker player. He is paying for that short-term rush with his long-term losses. It is his choice to do that, and there is nothing wrong with either the casino or the winning poker player charging him a fee for his fun.