Gambling and the Tale of Deadalus and Icarus

When a person gambles, they stake money or something else of material value on a guess. Normally, when a person does so, they intend to gain more money than the amount that they had originally wagered. In gambling, an individual will assume that an event will end in a certain way. If the assumption made is wrong, a person has to forfeit the amount that they had originally wagered, or have to pay a penalty. A large number of gambling games developed from this simple concept. Gambling establishments like casinos offer various kinds of gambling games, like roulette, solitaire, Baccarat, poker, craps, and blackjack. It has become an enormous, multi-billion dollar industry, and it has become a source of great economic progress for places like Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Monaco, and Macau.

The activity of gambling has been around for millennia. There are a lot of different references to gambling in places great works of oral and written literature of the world. In the story of Daedalus and Icarus, for instance, it is possible for many gamblers to glean an important moral lesson. In the beginning of the story, Deadalus, a skilled craftsman, was imprisoned with his son, Icarus, in a tower in Crete. To escape the tower that Minos, the king of Crete, had placed them in, Deadalus constructed two pairs of wings made from feathers and wax.

In trying to escape from the tower, the father and son are essentially making an enormous gamble. This is because they were not able to test their escape method. Regardless, the gamble that they made in using the wings that Daedalus had created, paid off. Icarus and Daedalus were able to escape from the Cretan tower. After this first win though, Icarus being young and impetuous, became overconfident and decided to take another gamble. Although Daedalus warned his son not to try to fly too high so that the wax on his wings would not be melted by the sun's heat, Icarus was too overcome with exhilaration to listen. In disobeying his father, Icarus took decided to risk everything and fly even higher than before. As expected, the second gamble that Icarus made did not pay off at all. Icarus essentially played like an overconfident Seven Card Stud poker player; going all in on an uncertain bet. In doing so, the sun's heat melted the wax that held his wings together, and Icarus fell to his death.

In gambling, there are usually two kinds of gamblers: the "Icarus" sorts, who are usually more inexperienced and rash and who are not as aware or respectful of the risks that they take, and the "Daedalus" types, who are more conscious of the possible consequences of losing, and are able to control themselves better while gambling.