US casinos get most of their money from slot machines made so addictive and "smooth" that people can get lost in them for hours or days.

I have sometimes wanted to get lost in playing a machine. Rather than going to a casino, I played a game on a computer — that cost me nothing. Free software games are available for this.

The idea of raising money for a state by legalizing casinos and taxing them made some rational sense for the first few states to do it. People from other states came there and spent money. Now that most US states have legalized casinos, this effect has disappeared; the result is that people spend money on casinos instead of some other business that also pays taxes.

It's amazing how shortsighted politicians can be when that enables a business to make money.