I'd say it's a lot like gambling because the casinos want you to stay at the table longer than it's safe to. They're making money on every hand dealt, much like the exchanges. They also rig the games at the start and pay out big and let some people walk away from the casino with big earnings to help advertise how easy it is to win at the casino to others, enticing new players to come visit the casino. This is also a scenario where we may realize that some people are given chips instead of USD and when they try to cash the chips out they realize the casino just created a bunch of chips that weren't worth anything and ran off with the money other people walked into the casino with.