A lot of gambling is a scam executed form profit. I call it a scam because it's not always fraudulent, it's persuasion and a dash of misleading info. Often one party unduly influences the outcome or has information that the other can't have. Whether it's corruption to predetermine the result of a match, or knowing that the star player will miss it, or a gambling machine that suggests a higher expected payout than the real one, or even a casino's rules that arbitrarily decide whether your win was legitimate or not, in practice the industry is more scam than legitimate business.

And who fueled the profits? Gamblers?

This instance is what you could call a scam, maybe even fraud. But in the absence of manipulation or insider knowledge predicting the weather is pretty close to gambling. As is "does bitcoin go up or down in the next five minutes" or "how many tweets will Elon Musk post in the next couple days" (all real bets on Polymarket)

Yes, gambling. That's literally what gambling is, a scam.

Gambling takes many forms.

If you and I flip a coin for $100, there's no scam.

Sooner or later someone will rig the coin

Potential for fraudulent activity makes something a scam? That list is gonna be long

"Gaming"[0] companies are audited for the expected value each coin toss/slot machine roll etc. has - typically it's a high and unusually precise percentage, like e.g. 95.1681%.

The scam in is advertising, that emphasizes how much you can potentially win, even though obviously on average the house takes those few percent each time.

[0] A term they like to use to describe themselves.

With regards to gambling, yes. The list is all of it.

It’s a scam when the house takes $1 from that $100 each time. These unlicensed internet gambling halls most certainly take their cut, whatever that amount is.

It's only a scam if they don't disclose that. If the house brought the two people together I'd say it's fair as services rendered. I don't get mad when a bar charges more than the base cost of the alcohol.

Your definition of scam is terrible

“ If you and I flip a coin for $100, there's no scam.” statistically over a time with a fair coin, they’re coming out even.

Add in the house taking a cut each time, now everyone but the house is guaranteed to lose.

Sounds like a scam to me

> now everyone but the house is guaranteed to lose.

Gambling is about more than making money. Most gamblers do not expect to win, they do it because its entertaining. Paying $1 for the opportunity to participate in the coin flip is something many people are happy to do. Negative EV does not equal losing because you forgot to include the entertainment value.

Scams involve deception. There is no deception in a business that is upfront about taking a fee to match gamblers.

If gambling wasn’t about the money then it wouldn’t be centered around money.

Or a spherical cow.