Seriously, people, I can’t make this stuff up. I’m not creative enough. A 52-year-old gambler, Terry Watanabe, is suing Harrah’s and Caesars Palace casinos because, he alleges, they took advantage of his gambling problem. Wantanabe lived at Caesars Palace six months and lost approximately $825 million at the casinos. He alleges that the casinos knew he had a gambling problem and took advantage of that, so he is suing to recoup his losses. Of course, he only sued after Harrah’s filed criminal charges against him for theft for leaving $15 million in unpaid gambling debts.

It is a sad day for advocates of personal responsibility. Let me get this straight, Wantanabe loses all of this money at the casinos, borrows money he can’t pay and thus ends up with a $15 million dollar debt, doesn’t pay it, has criminal charges filed against him for not paying, and then decides that it’s all the casino’s fault. Surely they knew he had a gambling problem! I mean, what kind of an idiot blows $825 million?

And there’s the problem. How exactly is it the casino’s fault that Wantanabe is an idiot? Anyone who walks into a casino and loses a lot of money has made a bad decision. Should the casinos stop them, refund their money and tell them to not come back anymore? I don’t think they would be in business long with that practice. Games in casinos have a house edge. The casino makes money off of that edge. Some people lose more money to the casinos than others. Those who lose a lot of money to them, the whales, are valued customers.

Following the logic of this lawsuit, McDonald’s should cut off anyone who comes in every day to order a value meal. Clearly, they have an eating problem and they will get fat if they keep eating that way. And it of course is the duty of the restaurant, not the customer, to make sure he doesn’t eat more than is healthy.

People need to be responsible for themselves. The number one rule for gambling, that I repeat over and over, is that you should never gamble money that you can’t afford to lose. If it would cause any type of hardship for you to lose the money, you should not wager it. Anyone who follows that rule is gambling responsibly. Anyone who doesn’t is being unwise; but it is the responsibility of the player to determine how much money to spend and how often to gamble.

Wantanabe only had an “addiction” once he found himself in jail. Until then, he was just a rich man blowing his money. Pretty convenient. Also, people love to talk about how problem gambling is a “disease.” I’ll bet people with cancer or Huntington’s disease wish they had the ability to decide not to have that disease anymore. A person can’t go to meetings, get a sponsor and refrain from activity that makes his disease worse and then cure his cancer. Calling gambling addiction a disease is simply another way of avoiding personal responsibility. Hey, it’s not his fault he loses money at the tracks. He has a disease. There is a psychological addiction to gambling that afflicts some people, but it is something that can be overcome through dedication, responsibility and perseverance. It is the responsibility of every gambler to spend their money wisely, or to give up gambling entirely if they find that they have a problem. The casinos’ responsibility is to provide games for the players and pay the players when they win. Never forget that.