Magic Dice Exit Scam, Gambling and Lottery Dreams...

So it would appear that "Magic Dice" has now been confirmed to be a scam, or so-called "exit scam."

I'm not going to comment in this particular development; if you're interested, I suggest you read either the initial "reveal" by long-time Steemians @themarkymark "MagicDice Exit Scam?" or the commentary by @klye "Magic Dice Exit Scam Confirmed!" which covers it all pretty well.

The whole thing reminds me of something my Uncle Hans said when I was about 12 or 13: "Gambling and Lotteries are a tax on gullible people who are bad at math!"

Flowers in the sun

Over the years, I have heard variations of that particular quip many times... along with a surprising cornucopia of rationalizations to the effect of "No, it's not really LIKE that! It's DIFFERENT! I understand how... and I have a SYSTEM!" all of which seems to be accompanied only by evidence of empty pockets and bank accounts, along with occasional gambling addictions

I get it, on some level. My dad was a pretty compulsive gambler who left tens of thousands of dollars at casinos, during his lifetime.

All for what?

The Thrill of Potential "Money for Nothing?"

Whereas hindsight is always 20/20 it seems telling to me that the ostensible "developer" of Magic Dice started out with dMania... Memes — in a sense — being the "money for nothing," manifestation of web content, in the sense that they tend to be the endless repetition of that same thing that has already been said 300,000 times with no additional effort or input. Not always, but most of the time.

"Scraping out a life on a sheer rock wall...

Of course, Uncle Hans' editorial comment mostly referred to the expanded explanation that the vast majority of gambling is a business, and the only reason people start businesses is to make money. Which means — when you have a money business like gambling — that the entire process revolves around removing money from the gamblers' pockets!

Gambling is always in favor of the house. So are lotteries. And Magic Dice.

"Yeah, but...."

No. There is no "yeah, but..."

The occasional winners — who are essential to the ongoing health of gambling! — inhabit a sort of "Cognitive Blindness Zone" in which they perceive their fortune as something more than just pure luck.

Admittedly, that IS quite different from a gambling operator simply STEALING the pot and running for the hills! However — scam, or no scam —you are playing on a field that is stacked against you, the moment you even participate.

Are you feeling LUCKY?

"Calculated Risk" vs. Straight "Gambling"

Most things are relative, of course.

A lot of people would call me — and many others — "gamblers," because we are involved in things like cryptocurrencies, or previously high-tech stocks, which are inherently enormously risky.

But there's a monumental difference between straight gambling (dice, roulette, lotteries) and situations where your "bet" is effectively on your own knowledge and having information others haven't taken the time to learn, rather than just random chance outcomes.

"Taking risks" and "gambling" are two very different things... although to an outsider the two might look quite similar, because that outsider is not privy to the information and specialized expertise someone involved in high risk ventures may have.

I think it sounds insanely risky to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet, but to a full-time skydiver, the risk is well controlled and not that much of a gamble.

Red leaf and lens flares...

Modern Times, and "The Lottery Effect"

The strength of what I call "The Lottery Effect" seems to have an inverse correlation with how well people are doing, economically speaking.

When times are tough — and people (ironically) should be most careful with their finances — gambling seems to increase... perhaps due to more people reaching for desperate measures to get an income. Or a pocketful of cash.

But the "Lottery Effect" really goes far beyond direct gambling and transcends into how we make decisions. We start looking up to and perhaps even idolizing actions and outcomes that are only possible to a tiny number of people who get great riches. We don't play the averages anymore, we start playing the EXTREMES.

Explained a little differently: we bestow far more admiration on professional sports stars or Hollywood celebrities who "made it big," than we do on the local businessman who who worked hard and slowly became a millionaire by creating an "empire" of 20 local burger restaurants. We want the "big score" NOW... or nothing at all.

And so, ventures like Magic Dice thrive, and people in large numbers jump to the conclusions that they are going to "make money" doing something that's not only high risk, but lives within a field that's subject to frequent exploitation by unscupulous characters.

What were they thinking?

Either way, I'm sorry people lost their money to scammers. On the other hand, it was gambling...

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190604 01:02 PST
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