I find that the real world works much like Bitcoin in a sense that one could use his mining rigs to double spend and scam for BTC, but it gives little to no financial compensation in comparison to mining in an honest manner.
Same principle applies to scams, even the biggest Bitcoin scams have profited relatively little (and at a high legal price) to the perpetrators in comparison to what they could have made if they applied their skills at operating in an honest manner.
I don't think that's true.
At its peak, Just-Dice had something like 65,000 BTC invested.
In the year it was running, gamblers lost around 20,000 BTC.
Even if I took 100% commission, I would have only made 20,000 BTC. But if I was a scammer and stole the bankroll at or near the peak I would have made more than three times as much. As it was, of course, commission was much lower than 100% and so I would have been even
more better off (I can't remember how to write proper English) scamming than running an honest site.
And I guess that's why there have been so many scam dice sites out there. It takes a long time for honest returns to eclipse what you can make from short-term scams.
That's not counting the near-impossibility of laundering and cashing in those 65,000BTC not to mention the years you'd spend in prison, ultimately rendering those 20,000BTC (or even 2,000BTC) a much better option.