All across the United States, in big cities and small towns and even in unincorporated rural places without names, people go to casinos and wish away more than fifty billion dollars each year. There are more than a thousand of them, rooms within rooms filled with men and women spending their paychecks in pursuit of the feeling of having won. Las Vegas boasts sixty-four. Biloxi, Mississippi, has eight. The other day, I visited “the only casino in N.Y.C.,” Resorts World, which is actually a “racino,” or race-track casino, with more than four thousand slot machines, dozens of busty virtual blackjack dealers on large TV screens, and actual horse races nearby. Inside, the vibe is more dive bar than Bellagio. “It’s just lose, lose, lose here,” a weathered man in a weathered red rain coat, standi

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