6 ms·

Very few human social outcomes are truly improved by adding the ability to gamble.

dtagames 5y ago
It could be argued that gambling is central to human activity. Its ultimate form is the stock market. In essence, everyone gambles every day on many kinds of outcomes, from choosing foods that won't kill us to driving safely, investing in one career and hobby over another, or picking a mating partner.
- peteforde 5y ago
  It'd be very hard for me to disagree with the spirit of your reply more than I do. Creating opportunities for people to gamble - new casinos, scratch-off tickets, those sad machines you see in bars - all of these are cash generation vehicles that historically have highly negative outcomes for members of the communities they are dropped into. Especially for groups that are already disadvantaged. This isn't academic speculation. As for gambling on every day outcomes - otherwise known as living your life - it's reasonable to say that one of the fundamental measures of progress as a species and a society is our distance from accidentally eating poisoned food, dangerous driving, a lack of opportunity and self-determination, and being forced to accept bad partners. In other words, the more we remove gambling, the better our lives become.
  - dtagames 5y ago
    I agree that casinos and crypto are predatory businesses. But I noticed you skipped the stock market -- which was my first and most important example. It would be difficult to argue in the modern world that the stock market is "bad" and we shouldn't have one. Yet it is undeniably a form of gambling -- the most advanced and expensive one, reserved for only the wealthiest gamblers.
    - peteforde 5y ago
      I actually don't think it's gambling, tbh. There's an interesting discussion to be had about truly free markets, for sure. However, the modern stock market is neither fair nor random. It's not accessible to you or I in the same way that it is to financial institutions. Front-running and dark pools are accepted as normal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI I would also suggest that Warren Buffett does not see the stock market as random or gambling. When he buys a company, it comes after huge amounts of research. A good stock trader obsessively researches the companies that they invest in. While it might not be anything like a guarantee of success, I sure hope you have better than Vegas odds when investing in a company that you've learned everything you can learn about without becoming an employee.

It could be argued that gambling is central to human activity. Its ultimate form is the stock market. In essence, everyone gambles every day on many kinds of outcomes, from choosing foods that won't kill us to driving safely, investing in one career and hobby over another, or picking a mating partner.

peteforde 5y ago
It'd be very hard for me to disagree with the spirit of your reply more than I do. Creating opportunities for people to gamble - new casinos, scratch-off tickets, those sad machines you see in bars - all of these are cash generation vehicles that historically have highly negative outcomes for members of the communities they are dropped into. Especially for groups that are already disadvantaged. This isn't academic speculation. As for gambling on every day outcomes - otherwise known as living your life - it's reasonable to say that one of the fundamental measures of progress as a species and a society is our distance from accidentally eating poisoned food, dangerous driving, a lack of opportunity and self-determination, and being forced to accept bad partners. In other words, the more we remove gambling, the better our lives become.
- dtagames 5y ago
  I agree that casinos and crypto are predatory businesses. But I noticed you skipped the stock market -- which was my first and most important example. It would be difficult to argue in the modern world that the stock market is "bad" and we shouldn't have one. Yet it is undeniably a form of gambling -- the most advanced and expensive one, reserved for only the wealthiest gamblers.
  - peteforde 5y ago
    I actually don't think it's gambling, tbh. There's an interesting discussion to be had about truly free markets, for sure. However, the modern stock market is neither fair nor random. It's not accessible to you or I in the same way that it is to financial institutions. Front-running and dark pools are accepted as normal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI I would also suggest that Warren Buffett does not see the stock market as random or gambling. When he buys a company, it comes after huge amounts of research. A good stock trader obsessively researches the companies that they invest in. While it might not be anything like a guarantee of success, I sure hope you have better than Vegas odds when investing in a company that you've learned everything you can learn about without becoming an employee.