Most free-market economists view such claims of desirable social by-products with the indignation of a poker player watching a professional gambler palm cards.

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Placing a big one-time bet "cuts the house edge to its bare minimum because it works on your stake only once, " says Anthony Curtis, a one-time professional gambler and president of lasvegasadvisor.com.

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Not only is one of the candidates a former bartender, boxer, prison guard, professional gambler, car-factory worker and snowplough driver.

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