I was walking past a TAB betting outlet in Sydney the other day, happened to glance at the big, bright posters in the window explaining how to put money on a horse, and couldn't believe my eyes: the posters all referred to the act of risking your hard-earned on a flea-bitten nag as an "investment"!
I took a photo with my cameraphone but unfortunately the flash flare obscures the relevant words in the picture. So I looked up the TAB's online FAQs, and sure enough, they refer to it as an "investment" too.
One man's "gambling" is one man's "investment". I guess it's marginally defensible as an "investment" as there's a chance it might pay a dividend, and I guess there are also highly speculative investments to be made in more sober markets such as stock exchanges and auctions. But still, the marketing team at TAB must have stayed up all night to hit upon that alternative to the word "gamble", and then gone out for a few beers to celebrate when they settled on "investment." Don't know how many drinks they had, but I bet they refrained from "investing" any money on a horse on the way home!
