The biggest difference between insurance companies and the guy who lets you lay 11 to win 10 on the Giants is that insurance companies are legal. And the difference between the guy who bets the Giants and the guy who bets he'll have an accident is that the insurance buyer doesn't mind losing. He's hedging against calamity, and therefore this kind of gambling is socially acceptable. Insurance companies, in case you haven't noticed, tend to make money. So do casinos.
Insurance companies get themselves into the long run by writing policies for millions of people.
Casinos get into the long run by conducting millions of trials every day on their tables and machines. Our clients avoid 'gambler's ruin' by amortizing their risk. They're more concerned about what our promotion does for them than its true worth. It's like a computer chip. The markup is enormous, but you're not necessarily paying for what it costs to make, you're paying for what it can do.