Why do bass fishermen fish tournaments?

There are a lot of fish tales that we could start with in Bass Fishing but perhaps the biggest has to be the idea that the hobby tournament fishermen fish for money. The logical interpretation would be that each year the tournament bass angler takes income minus expenses and the resulting number is his profit or the money his tournament fishing business netted him. *1
The TRUTH is that the hobby tournament fisherman is in a general addicted to two things, 1. The hope that he can win money and 2. to compete and hopefully brag later about his accomplishments (a real bonus here if is others blow his horn and allow him to say overly humble and ridiculous things like "I just got lucky", etc).
The idea of winning money is no stranger to the American adventurist. Since the days of Dutch and Spanish traders there has been a risk and reward gambler in many of us. The distinction in many is if they understand the folly of a non accounting business. Each year over 40 million Americans head to Las Vegas Nevada hoping to win money. This has to be one of the most insane ideas in all the world. Often even the players themselves state that they plan to lose money and winning is a bonus. Sounds oddly similar to "I get to go fishing the money is just a bonus doesn't it?" The Vegas convention bureau reports that only 6% of Vegas visitors say that gambling is the primary reason for the trip. However, more than 85% of visitors report some gambling. When a casino has revenues in the billions and profits in the hundreds of millions one thing is for certain, they do not build em and run em on winners. The hope is left in the casino and the player simply does no accounting of his gambling business and reports that he had a great time. This is the state of the modern day bass tournament fisherman, he is incapable of admitting that he is shooting the moon for the big first place pay day and ignoring the fact that 90% of all tournament fishermen lose money in their business.
But losing money isn't the only part it is worth a lot of money to people to be recognized as better than the next guy at something.

I would be happy to have any tournament fisherman give honest thoughts on this subject and would be happy to detail any tournament fisherman that can back up a claim that they made money fishing!

*1 - Hobby tournament fisherman =non professional tournament fisherman. This article is not directed to anyone that claims their sole income as tournament bass fishing. That is a whole other story of the lure pimpin guys and their festive wrapped boats!