mug's game

American  

noun

1. a foolish, useless, or ill-advised venture.

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Etymology

Origin of mug's game

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The effort to draw and police boundaries around our cultural practices is, in the end, a mug’s game.

From New York Times

While trying to find rational explanations for stock market movements is often a mug’s game, in this case there seemed to be something specific driving the action: At that moment, you see, word leaked out that President Biden was contemplating a steep rise in the capital gains tax.

From Los Angeles Times

“I think trying to predict where inflation is going to be in a few years is a mug’s game,” said Kristin Forbes, an economist at M.I.T. and a former official at the United States Treasury and the Bank of England.

From New York Times

"Predicting that the latest outrage will finally sever his bond with supporters has been a mug's game. And even as the coronavirus crisis escalated in March and April, there have been few signs that this is changing: 93% of self-described Republicans said during the first half of April that they approved of Trump's performance, according to Gallup — up two points from a month prior."

From Salon

But it does mean that anxiously attempting to implement such findings in your life, adjusting your behaviour to each new wrinkle in the science, is a mug’s game.

From The Guardian