But why is a declared, guaranteed, engineered loss better for the masses than a fuzzy-odds maybe-win?

Well. It doesn't SEEM hard to do the math, but roulette wheels still make money, so clearly some people aren't doing it right.

Wrong. You might be good at math, and still play the roulette; the difference is that you have to play it for variance, not for expected value (i.e. it's OK to lose $100 for a small chance of earning $100 000).

Some people don't mind losing money just for the thrill of possibly making money.

They like to gamble, even if, maybe especially if, the odds are against them.

just because the odds are against you doesn't mean it isn't fun. gambling is mostly fine as long as you know your limits. The problem is that it is an addictive behavior, and if you are addicted it becomes a huge problem.

I'm have a math major. I know that i'm likely to lose money playing roulette. yet i'll put a few dollars down when i'm on vacation on a cruise ship because it's entertaining and fun. the difference is that i view it entirely as an entertainment expense, and limit myself to a reasonable amount of money (that is generally really low). How much entertainment i get (how long i get to play) depends on how lucky i am. if it's gone it's gone, there is no getting more out to play longer (which is where people who are addicted generally struggle).

I play roulette and I'm pretty sure I got the math right.