Online Gambling

Ad for Fidelity Investments: "Why aren't YOU trading stocks online?

Because I'm not a complete MORON.

What is with this weird attitude that seems to be spreading over 'net people, that it's all a big cyberspatial gambling den? Everywhere I look I see ads for online casinos, which frankly I think is such a bizarre idea I can hardly credit it, and now because the stock market is undergoing the equivalent of a freak tornado, everyone wants to jump on that wagon? Lose all you want, we'll make more?

I suppose it was actually inevitable; the metaphoric disconnect between online and the real world makes spending money (or giving it away in the case of gambling—either via video poker or the NYSE) far easier than it's ever been before. It's just numbers on the screen, not even as real as picking up a catalog and calling an 800 number. Now you see it, now you don't.

Well, they won't get me. I'm gonna go stuff some money under my mattress.

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