Studies of human behaviour (sorry don't have a link or footnote) have shown that the vast majority of gamblers use denial as a method of dealing with the fact they are massive financial losers. It is my opinion that many of them would know, deep down, that they are losing money, but they trick themselves into "minimising" the losses in their head - for, if they were to face the truth, they wouldn't be able to justify their expenditures to themselves, let alone to anyone else.
I run a weekly game and my dealer keeps records of all cash-ins/cash-outs so we know exactly who the long-term winners/losers are. You have to smile when you hear someone bragging about being up a couple thousand for the year when you know they are down a couple thousand. The books don't lie (unless those books are Enron's, I suppose).
CF
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