Look at video poker machines that are lined up at the entrance to any casino, or lurking in the corner of social clubs where the local gambling ordinances permit them. They play to the greed, the get-rich-quick in the poor saps who can’t resist them. . . Pityful losers. . . Keep hearing them complain they’re not winning enough. Keep seeing them coming back to the machines. There’s only one thing you can say about these people. The House has an edge. No matter where you go in the casino world, whether its to some swanky place or online, the paytables are set in a way that gives the House a mathematical advantage. They have worked out the one important feature of the machines. There will be times when players have a hot streak and it will seem like all the jackpots are falling. So let’s put those sore losers right. There’s no need for the House to rig the machines. The casino operators are going to win in the long term without having to cheat. Then those streaks will go cold. That’s just the way statistics work their way to the one mathematical certainty. The House will win in the end. There’s no way they will spoil a sure thing by risking detection as a fraud by regulators.