Both situations begin with a common pool of money. The pool is distributed among those who have created it on the basis of a series of events that are partly controllable. Through a mixture of skills, self-control, and sheer luck, some of those who have created it will receive more than others.

There is no inherent difference between sifting through a horse's prospects of winning a race and a company's prospects of returning regular profits. There is no inherent difference in deciding whether to raise the betting on a particular hand of cards and deciding whether a property is a good or bad buy.

But there is a world of difference between the pace of gambling and the pace of investing. A gambler faces as many investment situations in a week as an investor does in a lifetime. The rules are the same, but the gambler is in a situation where he can learn the rules quickly.