Space travel will never be profitable because it's so expensive. We have plenty of minerals here on earth. The only benefit of asteroid mining is using it to build spaceships already in orbit.
If we have enough resources to actually explore other planets, we'll probably be post-scarcity. There's not going to be any profitable reason to go to space. It'll just be to have the experience. There's nothing special in space, it's just rocks with no air.
No it doesn't involve abnormal shifts in betting. Only idiots would move from $5 directly to $100 per hand. Average gamblers start small and get excited too.
If you do it slowly, starting at the minimum and getting "excited" when the deck is rich in tens, no one will notice or care. Play $5 to $50 and order a drink.
The average card counter is a young single dude in a baseball cap drinking a water. Wear a fun outfit, get a free drink, and talk to the dealer. No one will notice.
And yes, you can count a shoe. You just need to find a dealer that deals about 70% of the cards.