The Nest Egg Concept

The Desert Inn has heart. Or at least that is what Albert Brooks hopes to promote when he goes to the casino manager's office in "Lost In America" after his wife, played by Julie Hagerty, loses their nest egg at the roulette wheel. Albert patiently explains how he and his wife are dropping out of society, but first they stopped in Las Vegas to get one last massive jolt of society in Sin City. He did not plan on his wife losing his life savings. So he decides to go and get it back.
If you haven't seen the movie, I won't burden you with the outcome. I will, however, burden you with the challenge of going out and seeing this comic gem. After you have seen it, as I have several times, you will understand why I thought of this moment when I heard that the New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman is filing a lawsuit against FanDuel and DraftKings. Mister Schneiderman would like for all those citizens in his state who lost money playing daily fantasy sports with either of these web sites to get their money back. The basis of his argument is that what these two companies have been offering to their somewhat naive customer base is illegal gambling and not the "game of skill" they are promoting. Or were promoting more widely until all of this legal trouble began. When the football season began, you couldn't watch more than a quarter without being reminded of the easy money to be made on the daily fantasy racket. Did I just say "racket?" That sounds a little pejorative, but then again, I never studied law.
I did, however, lose a lot of money on stupid bets back when I was a kid. "A lot" would be defined by "lunch money" back then, but it was still significant to me. I learned that if I wanted lunch, it was probably best not to bet on the outcome of events over which I had no control. This was only after a period of time in which I believed that I could get twice as much lunch if I just got lucky. I never bothered taking my case to the Attorney General, let alone my teachers or mother and father. They would have laughed that laugh that goes along with tough lessons learned. And I would not have gotten my money back.
In New York, present day, AG Schneiderman would like to get five thousand dollars in fines to every customer these guys have. With more than half a million customers, that's a pretty good chunk of change. It might even make someone a nice little nest egg. I would only encourage the State of New York not to try that stuff at the Desert Inn. They might comp you a room or buy you breakfast, but you're not getting your nest egg back.