The DJIA (e.g.) isn’t “the house”. It isn’t something you are competing with in that your losses are its/their gain. You are misunderstanding both investing (in general and the stock market specifically) and gambling when you make that confusion/analogy.
Not beating the market but having positive returns is only “losing” when infinite exponential growth is the goal. Beating the market but having negative returns is not “winning”.
Vocabulary question X + shell + powder = bullet, what is X?
Because usually the threat is that X will be delivered through use of powder the destination of the shell is ambiguous but not included in the delivery.
When you deliver while (unfired) bullets it’s generally not considered a threat.