Is it fair to say the TikTok algorithm works a lot like a casino?

Just an academic question. When a casino first opens, the slots are "loose" and there are a lot of payouts. The casino is building a customer base (through gaming addiction) and a perception (via word of mouth) that this is economically viable. They teach people that you can "win".

But eventually they tighten the payouts and start to lean on an expectation that all these hamsters are trained well enough they'll mash that pedal 150 to get a single pellet of food. They're also testing (I think) to see who is willing to PAY to promote a reel. Everything I've read says that is a mistake, because they'll mark you as someone who is desperate enough to pay-to-play, start throttling your views and see if they can shake more out of you.

This is what my instinct tells me. I actually have no way to PROVE that my reel hasn't been shown to 100 times more people than they say. It kind of feels like maybe they're keeping us dancing and working for free, on the PROMISE of a payday, and we actually have NO metric to know whether that expectation is more valid than say, any other job out there. And this doesn't just apply to TikTok .. I have my doubts about YouTube as well.

What do you all think? Is anyone actually making money at this? Because it really kind of looks like a racket.