Core-'MLM' victims are like chronic gambling addicts

Shyam 

In all lawful and unlawful gambling, the (unwritten) golden rule for the house, is 'keep the gambler playing,' because, no matter what is won in the short-term, in the long-term, the odds on winning are tipped in the favour of the house and, consequently, the chronic-gambler will eventually almost-certainly lose overall. Thus, the profession of running a casino, or of bookmaking, is to make sure that the odds are always tipped in the favour of the house. In lawful gambling, regulation exists which ensures that gamblers have some chance of winning in the short-term, but in unlawful gambling, no such regulation exists.  

In France, private, or open-market, bookmaking has been illegal for decades. However, the Internet has recently led to radical changes in French gambling laws. The bookmaking system that has been operated lawfully in France, is the 'Paris Mutuel'  a.k.a 'Totalizer.'  In this, all bets on any particular horse race have been gathered through government-licensed, and tightly-regulated, offices, into a closed central fund. The odds on each horse winning, can fluctuate right up to the start of the race, because they are worked-out depending on how much of the fund has been gambled on any particular animal. A small fixed-percentage of the fund is retained by its organizers, whilst a higher fixed-percentage is paid out to the winning gamblers. This closed-market 'Paris Mutuel' system resembles an inverted, mutual insurance fund. When run correctly, the system is guaranteed never to lose money for its organizers, because it is based on transferring the losing gamblers'  money to the organizers and to the winning gamblers.  

Unless they have been chronic gambling addicts (dissociated from external reality), then all players of the 'Paris Mutuel', have been fully-aware that they risk losing what they bet.

More than 50 years of evidence, in the form of tens of millions of previous losers, proves that (for the ordinary player) the odds of winning any net-benefit in the effectively closed-market 'Amway' game of 'business' make-believe, have been zero. Exactly as in the 'Paris Mutuel,' the only real money flowing into the 'Amway' system has come from the players and, thus, the organizers, who have retained a significant fixed-percentage, can never lose. However, unlike the 'Paris Mutuel' the insignificant few players who have been seen to be winning massively, are always the same grinning schills, whilst the overwhelming majority of constantly-churning players have can never ever win, because the game has been secretly-rigged to produce, and to hide, universal loss.

Chronic 'MLM' addicts have been conditioned to believe that they are Independent Business Owners who, if they do not question the authenticity of their  'risk-free MLM income opportunities' and continue to duplicate the '100% positive' example of their leaders (i.e. consume and recruit), will soon also become massive winners.  Unfortunately, this is a cruel lie designed to load its victims with guilt.

All the evidence proves that if you fall for this pernicious blame-the victim fraud, you will lose some money. However, the longer you remain, the more you will lose. The worst 'MLM' victims have quite literally lost everything, and some have wound up killing themselves. 

Many observers have compared core-'MLM' victims to chronic gambling addicts; for both groups live in denial of external reality - only ever declaring their short-term winnings and hiding their overall net- losses.

David Brear (copyright 2011)