5 ms·

That’s clearly a straw man argument. A) The federal government doesn’t ban gambling. B) As far as I’m aware there isn’t a single place in this country where g

by lojack 9y ago

That’s clearly a straw man argument. A) The federal government doesn’t ban gambling. B) As far as I’m aware there isn’t a single place in this country where gambling is/isn’t allowed for those with specific net worths.

wakamoleguy 9y ago
It's not a strawman. The parent is suggesting that we as a people have no problem with allowing low-income or low-net-worth people to gamble (pointing to the acceptance of Las Vegas as evidence). Then an equivalence is drawn between gambling and securities investing. By pointing out that, in fact, 31 states make commercial casinos illegal[1], I am refuting the suggestion that gambling is considered acceptable, which weakens the argument that securities investing should be acceptable as well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_the_United_States
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- DennisP 9y ago
  Meanwhile 44 states run lotteries. Apparently gambling is acceptable in principle, just not competition with the states' games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States
  - wakamoleguy 9y ago
    I'm not sure it's that simple. There's a wide spectrum of types of gambling, and equal variation in the laws regulating those types. Going to Vegas and losing your money on dice sounds like commercial casinos, which is why I chose to highlight it. Most states do have lotteries, as you point out, and gambling where the proceeds go to charity is also legal in most states (see previous sources in this thread). Once you start shifting the type of gambling, though, you also get further from the analogy at hand. One way to look at it is that providing revenue for education or charities could be seen as a public good that outweighs the undesirability of gambling. To take it back to the original argument, the question is then to decide where investing sits on that spectrum. I am not sure, but I do think there are enough reasonable differences between investing in securities, commercial casino gambling, and lotteries to expect that they may have different regulations.

by lojack 9y ago

wakamoleguy 9y ago

It's not a strawman. The parent is suggesting that we as a people have no problem with allowing low-income or low-net-worth people to gamble (pointing to the acceptance of Las Vegas as evidence). Then an equivalence is drawn between gambling and securities investing. By pointing out that, in fact, 31 states make commercial casinos illegal[1], I am refuting the suggestion that gambling is considered acceptable, which weakens the argument that securities investing should be acceptable as well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_the_United_States

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
DennisP 9y ago
Meanwhile 44 states run lotteries. Apparently gambling is acceptable in principle, just not competition with the states' games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States
- wakamoleguy 9y ago
  I'm not sure it's that simple. There's a wide spectrum of types of gambling, and equal variation in the laws regulating those types. Going to Vegas and losing your money on dice sounds like commercial casinos, which is why I chose to highlight it. Most states do have lotteries, as you point out, and gambling where the proceeds go to charity is also legal in most states (see previous sources in this thread). Once you start shifting the type of gambling, though, you also get further from the analogy at hand. One way to look at it is that providing revenue for education or charities could be seen as a public good that outweighs the undesirability of gambling. To take it back to the original argument, the question is then to decide where investing sits on that spectrum. I am not sure, but I do think there are enough reasonable differences between investing in securities, commercial casino gambling, and lotteries to expect that they may have different regulations.