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The main counter I would offer... There's also the simple well established precedent of vice taxes.

• Guvante 11y ago
  It is an interesting philosophical question of whether vice taxes are a good thing however given this result of those vice taxes. (I am generalizing a bit as cigarettes and alcohol are also vice taxed and also lead to the same problems as lotteries).
  • oh_sigh 11y ago
    Vice taxes only make sense if they reduce the likelihood of someone committing the vice. Otherwise it's just profiteering(especially when the tax funds aren't pumped back into, say, anti-vice programs).
    • Guvante 11y ago
      Economically vice taxes always reduce consumption. Determining whether reality matches that prediction is probably an open field of study at this point.