10 ms·

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break th

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break the law to gamble but given the chance would blow hundreds of dollars on slots in a single visit to a casino. And they would go as often as possible because they liked the attention casinos gave them and they had nothing better to do. Sure maybe legal gambling will let young people move from sketchy books to more legitimate operations, but they aren't really the ones that get abused by legalized gambling. Casinos will find a way to exploit old folks with this, I guarantee it. Old people often have about as much going between their ears as ~11-13 year olds but have a lot more disposable income.

thaumasiotes 9y ago
Gambling hasn't always been so difficult. It's a practice with a long social history, often including attempts to stamp it out. Out of all of that, my impression is that it is generally not viewed as characteristically a vice of the old. How are things different now? Do you think it's just that if you grow up around legal gambling and you're the type to waste everything you have on it, you won't have any money left to gamble away by the time you're old?
- Spooky23 9y ago
  Its a nasty addiction that’s been layered with a veneer of legitimacy.
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    I'm not trying to discuss whether it's a "nasty addiction" or legitimate or anything else. I'm questioning the view that the victims of legal gambling are primarily old people.
  - junkscience2017 9y ago
    I'm sorry but this really isn't true. This isn't tobacco, where people become addicted and then industry lies about the health implications. Everyone who gambles understands that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and if the casino lost more than they won, it wouldn't be a casino at all. No one is told they will always win. True, there is manipulation, but all advertising is based on manipulation, as is most of our media. Why don't we talk about banning alcohol? From deaths to sickness to loss of quality of life, alcohol is the grand-daddy of vice! But coastal liberals love their Pinot Noir, craft beer and boutique small-batch scotch, so instead we talk about limiting the vices of red-staters (guns, gambling, tobacco)
    - Spooky23 9y ago
      It is. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-gets-addicted-to-gambling/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-get...
      - junkscience2017 9y ago
        if you're really going to go that route you might as well legalize violent crimes too, after all, it's just us listening to our time-to-reproduce/time-to-fight signals everywhere in society we are expected to overcome and be responsible for our base urges
        Spooky23 9y ago
        We recognize that people can cross a line where their inability to control violent behavior becomes a medical issue.
sithadmin 9y ago
I'm not sure if you've ever spent any time in an American casino, but the sports book is not where you find 'really old people', except perhaps the handful of older guys betting on horse races. And at the sports book area, chances are that you aren't going to encounter the sort of obvious problem gamblers that you see glued to the video poker and slots.
- opportune 9y ago
  Right but you can modify sports games to become more like regular games. For example I claim you're making a sports bet but structure the game so that it's identical to slots. That's what they do in Kentucky to basically make legalized slot machines
  - sithadmin 9y ago
    The phenomenon you're describing is a real conundrum (and it's an emerging issue in my home state of Texas), but at the end of the day can be settled by a more stringent state or federally-enforced definition of what qualifies as a slot machine, especially when it's fairly obvious that using replays of old sport events to determine payout is not at all the same thing as letting the outcome be settled by a random number generator.
    - CamperBob2 9y ago
      Or, the government could just butt out and let consenting adults gamble if that's what they want to do with their time and money.
      - ggg9990 9y ago
        What's your definition of consenting adult? A person with a gambling problem is about as able to give informed consent as a mentally retarded person.
        CamperBob2 9y ago
junkscience2017 9y ago
Give your family some credit. They could have sought out a casino somehow and lost their life savings many times over if they were as dim-witted and susceptible as you think they are.
- opportune 9y ago
  Hard to do that yourself when you're 94, don't know how to use a smartphone, and have Alzheimer's I never called them dim-witted in a mean sense, I mean that when you are old you aren't able to think with the same mental acuity as you once could. People with Alzheimer's or that are beginning to grow senile really are like children, and they are susceptible
  - junkscience2017 9y ago
    If they have a legit diagnosis for dementia, there are ways to get power-of-attorney as there are many ways people in their condition can act in ways everyone will regret.

thaumasiotes 9y ago

Gambling hasn't always been so difficult. It's a practice with a long social history, often including attempts to stamp it out. Out of all of that, my impression is that it is generally not viewed as characteristically a vice of the old. How are things different now? Do you think it's just that if you grow up around legal gambling and you're the type to waste everything you have on it, you won't have any money left to gamble away by the time you're old?

Spooky23 9y ago
Its a nasty addiction that’s been layered with a veneer of legitimacy.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  I'm not trying to discuss whether it's a "nasty addiction" or legitimate or anything else. I'm questioning the view that the victims of legal gambling are primarily old people.
- junkscience2017 9y ago
  I'm sorry but this really isn't true. This isn't tobacco, where people become addicted and then industry lies about the health implications. Everyone who gambles understands that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and if the casino lost more than they won, it wouldn't be a casino at all. No one is told they will always win. True, there is manipulation, but all advertising is based on manipulation, as is most of our media. Why don't we talk about banning alcohol? From deaths to sickness to loss of quality of life, alcohol is the grand-daddy of vice! But coastal liberals love their Pinot Noir, craft beer and boutique small-batch scotch, so instead we talk about limiting the vices of red-staters (guns, gambling, tobacco)
  - Spooky23 9y ago
    It is. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-gets-addicted-to-gambling/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-get...
    - junkscience2017 9y ago
      if you're really going to go that route you might as well legalize violent crimes too, after all, it's just us listening to our time-to-reproduce/time-to-fight signals everywhere in society we are expected to overcome and be responsible for our base urges
      - Spooky23 9y ago
        We recognize that people can cross a line where their inability to control violent behavior becomes a medical issue.

sithadmin 9y ago

I'm not sure if you've ever spent any time in an American casino, but the sports book is not where you find 'really old people', except perhaps the handful of older guys betting on horse races. And at the sports book area, chances are that you aren't going to encounter the sort of obvious problem gamblers that you see glued to the video poker and slots.

opportune 9y ago
Right but you can modify sports games to become more like regular games. For example I claim you're making a sports bet but structure the game so that it's identical to slots. That's what they do in Kentucky to basically make legalized slot machines
- sithadmin 9y ago
  The phenomenon you're describing is a real conundrum (and it's an emerging issue in my home state of Texas), but at the end of the day can be settled by a more stringent state or federally-enforced definition of what qualifies as a slot machine, especially when it's fairly obvious that using replays of old sport events to determine payout is not at all the same thing as letting the outcome be settled by a random number generator.
  - CamperBob2 9y ago
    Or, the government could just butt out and let consenting adults gamble if that's what they want to do with their time and money.
    - ggg9990 9y ago
      What's your definition of consenting adult? A person with a gambling problem is about as able to give informed consent as a mentally retarded person.
      - CamperBob2 9y ago

junkscience2017 9y ago

Give your family some credit. They could have sought out a casino somehow and lost their life savings many times over if they were as dim-witted and susceptible as you think they are.

opportune 9y ago
Hard to do that yourself when you're 94, don't know how to use a smartphone, and have Alzheimer's I never called them dim-witted in a mean sense, I mean that when you are old you aren't able to think with the same mental acuity as you once could. People with Alzheimer's or that are beginning to grow senile really are like children, and they are susceptible
- junkscience2017 9y ago
  If they have a legit diagnosis for dementia, there are ways to get power-of-attorney as there are many ways people in their condition can act in ways everyone will regret.