Insurance companies, lotteries, Las Vegas -- all use similar monetization schemes to what is described here. There have to be a whole lot of "losers" to pay for a few big winners, keep the doors open, etc. I doubt any of them are going away any time soon and I can think of a whole lot of reasons people pay for those things. For example, for fun, for hope during hard financial times, for peace of mind. (Insurance usually claims to be selling peace of mind more than anything else.)<p>Also, donn, an FYI: rebutting every single comment posted here is a) bad form and b) a great way to make sure no one fucking wants to discuss your piece.