Gambling (in its many forms) has been getting out-of-hand for so many demographics recently. Not just loot boxes and in-game casinos, but cryptocurrency gambli

Gambling (in its many forms) has been getting out-of-hand for so many demographics recently. Not just loot boxes and in-game casinos, but cryptocurrency gambling, sports betting, options and stock gambling, and much more. It seems like everywhere I go I enter huge gambling markets, and I see the same patterns of behavior in all of them, and the amount of people that are hurt terribly, sometimes to the point of complete financial ruin or even suicide, is immense. More immense than we believe if you ask me, because it's very shameful to admit this stuff, and I think most of it goes unnoticed. In theory I like the idea of consumers getting to spend money however they want to, but it's clear that the downsides of letting apps manage their 'virtual item' gambling however they want to is terrible for so many consumers, and it's unfair how addictively-engineered these games are, often using optimization techniques and psychological tricks that the users do not understand, and doing whatever it takes to deceive people about their luck, odds, prospects, and so on. Just that these companies will do anything they can to retain their whale shows how predatory it can be - they will not just offer free in-game items to keep you, but the true high-spends they will offer free products to like a free iPad or iPhone, and will sometimes dedicate significant employee time to using any trick they can to make sure these people keep spending their money on gambling.