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Casinos (and lotteries) are subject to heavy regulation, including oversight on the odds of the games they offer. The problem with back-end enforcement (and th

Casinos (and lotteries) are subject to heavy regulation, including oversight on the odds of the games they offer. The problem with back-end enforcement (and those laws do exist) is that it doesn't remove the incentive to try issuing a scam-ish security and hope you will evade prosecution, and the damage done can take years to unwind, if it's even possible at all. This is why there are regulations on public offerings of securities to non-accredited investors.

bufferoverflow 9y ago
Really? 1) So what lottery odds are not allowed? 2) Can you name a single lottery with odds in your favor? Cause with cryptocurrencies, so far, the investors have made money on average.
- tomkarlo 9y ago
  1) Here's the lottery code for CA. Payouts are regulated - by it's nature, the odds of a lottery depend on the number of tickets, but typically, there are strict rules about the minimum % of receipts paid back to winners (which is effectively equivalent to setting house odds), and in many cases, only the state government can run them. http://static.www.calottery.com/~/media/Publications/Lottery_Regulations/Lottery%20Act%20for%20Website%2007-14.pdf http://static.www.calottery.com/~/media/Publications/Lottery... 2.) There's been multiple cases where lotteries were -accidentally- setup such that the odds were in the favor of players if they pursued the right strategy. Here's one: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/how-mit-students-gamed-the-lottery/470349/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/how-mit... A history of gains to investors aren't an definite indicatio that an investment is good, or that the overall odds favor the investor. If I go into a casino and win roulette 3 times in a row, that doesn't mean the wheel is biased in my favor. Similarly, in most ponzi schemes, all of the early investors make money. (And even in a non-fraudulent situation, simply having an investment go up doesn't mean it was a good investment, when examined on a risk-adjusted basis vs. other alternate options.)

bufferoverflow 9y ago

Really? 1) So what lottery odds are not allowed? 2) Can you name a single lottery with odds in your favor? Cause with cryptocurrencies, so far, the investors have made money on average.

tomkarlo 9y ago
1) Here's the lottery code for CA. Payouts are regulated - by it's nature, the odds of a lottery depend on the number of tickets, but typically, there are strict rules about the minimum % of receipts paid back to winners (which is effectively equivalent to setting house odds), and in many cases, only the state government can run them. http://static.www.calottery.com/~/media/Publications/Lottery_Regulations/Lottery%20Act%20for%20Website%2007-14.pdf http://static.www.calottery.com/~/media/Publications/Lottery... 2.) There's been multiple cases where lotteries were -accidentally- setup such that the odds were in the favor of players if they pursued the right strategy. Here's one: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/how-mit-students-gamed-the-lottery/470349/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/how-mit... A history of gains to investors aren't an definite indicatio that an investment is good, or that the overall odds favor the investor. If I go into a casino and win roulette 3 times in a row, that doesn't mean the wheel is biased in my favor. Similarly, in most ponzi schemes, all of the early investors make money. (And even in a non-fraudulent situation, simply having an investment go up doesn't mean it was a good investment, when examined on a risk-adjusted basis vs. other alternate options.)