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Tl;dr - Yes. The first source of money for online casinos is not the money that the poor addict pours into it, it is the huge money laundering operations that

Tl;dr - Yes. The first source of money for online casinos is not the money that the poor addict pours into it, it is the huge money laundering operations that are done in the back. Online casinos are not based in places that you will imagine particular transparent in terms of tax policy. They are based in Malta (russian money), Gibraltar (UK money) or in places like the Caiman Islands, Panama... A journalist was murdered in Malta for just speaking about this.

driverdan 9y ago
You're assuming that money laundering is unethical.
- falcolas 9y ago
  Is there an argument in favor of it (money laundering) being ethical? The most I can think of is anonymity for the general public, but is this an actual use case?
  - pmarreck 9y ago
    Let's suppose it's 1775 and the American rebels want to fund an arguably-just fight against the ruling British. Or let's suppose you run a VPN in China that allows the Chinese to arguably-justifiably access Western websites, and you need to launder your funds. Or perhaps you're a spy inside ISIS and need to hide the fact that you're getting funded by the US. Or perhaps you're in Iran and want to leave, but since Iran doesn't permit you to bring any money out of the country, you (arguably ethically and justifiably) decide to get it out via Bitcoins. Being able to launder money is arguably very similar to being able to maintain privacy, which means it falls under Martin Fowler's excellent argument for privacy: https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/bothersome-privacy.html https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/bothersome-privacy.htm... I have never argued for money laundering in my life, but guys... you have to stop seeing everything in black-and-white.
    - falcolas 9y ago
      So, general anonymity, as I mentioned above. My (admittedly only implied) question around this usecase is: is it a real usecase, or purely theoretical?
      - pmarreck 9y ago
        Well, I did donate BTC to a cause in Africa (forget the country) that was at odds with the government which was taking a steep cut of any incoming money
  - donatj 9y ago
    I'd say financial anonymity should be considered a basic human right. If you have no privacy to your purchases, you have no privacy at all.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

driverdan 9y ago

You're assuming that money laundering is unethical.

falcolas 9y ago
Is there an argument in favor of it (money laundering) being ethical? The most I can think of is anonymity for the general public, but is this an actual use case?
- pmarreck 9y ago
  Let's suppose it's 1775 and the American rebels want to fund an arguably-just fight against the ruling British. Or let's suppose you run a VPN in China that allows the Chinese to arguably-justifiably access Western websites, and you need to launder your funds. Or perhaps you're a spy inside ISIS and need to hide the fact that you're getting funded by the US. Or perhaps you're in Iran and want to leave, but since Iran doesn't permit you to bring any money out of the country, you (arguably ethically and justifiably) decide to get it out via Bitcoins. Being able to launder money is arguably very similar to being able to maintain privacy, which means it falls under Martin Fowler's excellent argument for privacy: https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/bothersome-privacy.html https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/bothersome-privacy.htm... I have never argued for money laundering in my life, but guys... you have to stop seeing everything in black-and-white.
  - falcolas 9y ago
    So, general anonymity, as I mentioned above. My (admittedly only implied) question around this usecase is: is it a real usecase, or purely theoretical?
    - pmarreck 9y ago
      Well, I did donate BTC to a cause in Africa (forget the country) that was at odds with the government which was taking a steep cut of any incoming money
- donatj 9y ago
  I'd say financial anonymity should be considered a basic human right. If you have no privacy to your purchases, you have no privacy at all.
deleted 9y ago
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