the house always wins

English

Proverb

the house always wins

  1. In a casino, all gambling is designed so that the house (i.e. the casino owners) will always net a profit, regardless of the successes of individual patrons.
    Don't go to that casino. All their games are designed to make you lose more money than you earn, so that the house always wins.
  2. (by extension) A given system is designed to net a profit for, or benefit, some (specified or implied) people.
    The more we sell in our shop, the more profit for all of us. Our customers will be happy, but the house always wins.
    • 2021 February 3, Farhad Manjoo, “Can We Please Stop Talking About Stocks, Please?”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      The Reddit amateurs may be gloating about their victory over elite hedge funds now, but in the casino of Wall Street the house always wins, and many Redditors may be flirting with financial catastrophe.
  3. (by extension) In a given system or situation, over a long enough timescale, a particular (specified or implied) outcome is inevitable.
    • 2005 November 1, Michael Munowitz, Knowing: The Nature of Physical Law, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 282:
      ... thermodynamics has its way. The end may be a long time coming, but come it must: the odds cannot be beaten. Sooner or later, the timelessness of equilibrium sets in. In the gambling casino of nature, the house always wins.

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