I was using "Vegas" as shorthand for "the gambling industry". Which is selling an addictive product that makes people worse off in direct proportion to the amount they consume. Which, yes, sells the hope of winning. Talk to anybody on a flight to Vegas and ask them if they hope to win. If they're playing, they're not playing to lose.
There's a difference between hoping to win and hoping to win being only reason of going there. If you ask me whether I hope to be a billionaire one day, I'd say, sure, why not, I'll take it. But that's different from actually working on becoming one.
But if they are happy to spend their money on the playing of the game...it's not like they are being tricked any more than the purchaser of an overpriced handbag.
