5 ms·

It's weird to me how sports gambling just seemed to start being accepted as a normal part of everyone's life, apparently, based on how common the ads are. Gamb

by ilaksh 4y ago

It's weird to me how sports gambling just seemed to start being accepted as a normal part of everyone's life, apparently, based on how common the ads are. Gambling addiction is real. It affected my family. It's like a tax on society, except that it often most negatively affects the people who can least afford to be taxed, and then it usually just goes to greedy people rather than funding public works. At least lotteries supposedly go towards public projects. But again, you are taking proportionately more from the most desperate and poor people in that case which is the opposite of how a tax should work.

thebigjewbowski 4y ago
The state taxes casinos and sports books an insane amount on top of regular federal taxes and whatnot. It’s not totally extractive but they are obviously still profitable. The thing is, everyone gambled before legalization. You didn’t even need a bookie, every online casino has taken bets from US citizens and then pay no taxes to the state or country. Bookies are even worse than online casinos because they offer a line of credit and later coerce you to give up your business, sell drugs, etc. All in all it’s very similar to drugs. People are going to do it anyway, might as well make it legal. You can contact any casino and request to be excluded from play indefinitely. You can set deposit limits and cannot lift them for a month at a time. There’s some “harm reduction” required by law.
- Cupertino95014 4y ago
  No, "everyone" did not gamble. Some people did, but others didn't want to enough to find a bookie or try an online casino. "People are going to do it anyway" -- wrong, some people are going to do it. Many will not if it's illegal.
  - thebigjewbowski 4y ago
    Many people still don’t ;). I’m one of the only software engineers I know who gambles on sports or plays cards. Sports gambling has been legal in the UK and other parts of the EU for a long time. Betting on horses and dogs, too, has been legal for forever.
    - Cupertino95014 4y ago
      Yeah, I've seen or been on several work trips to Vegas, and only a few people gambled. It doesn't appeal to everyone.
code_duck 4y ago
I'm still perplexed at how casinos are all over the US now. Growing up in the 80s, the story was 'gambling is bad and thus illegal everywhere, except horse tracks and for some reason Nevada'. Then of course casinos on reservations started opening all over, close to and even in the middle cities (Fond-du-Luth in Minnesota, for instance, is directly in downtown Duluth).
- coding123 4y ago
  Welcome to the end of times. Same here, I remember a society that was fair, hard working and not filled with crazies.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    What country are you from?
- jonathankoren 4y ago
  Growing up in the Midwest, we got riverboat gambling, and watched the inevitable slide to just casinos. For those that aren’t aware, this was the basic history. Casinos are bad. Ban them. Casinos are bad, but maybe profitable. Let’s have a few, but we’ll put them on 19th century style paddlewheel riverboats, and make the boat go out into the river for an hour long cruise to limit access. Okay, the boat can remained docked, but it will still “cruise” for an hour before people are allowed on and off. Okay, so maybe the boat can actually be in an artificial pond, that’s only about a foot bigger than the boat, as long as that “boat in a moat” is within some small number of miles from an approved gambling river. These boats will also “go cruising”, and since they are boats, they will be regulated by the US Coast Guard, and be required to have enough life jackets for the maximum occupancy of the boat, even though if the boat were to “sink” it would only fall 12 inches to the bottom of the moat. Okay, so maybe the boats don’t have to “cruise” and people can just come and go from the gambling floor whenever they want. Okay. Let’s just have a regular casino in a regular building, nowhere near a river.
- ifsothen 4y ago
  Native Americans are allowed to operate casinos on their land, state laws to the contrary be damned. So if there's an Indian reservation near your cities, banning gambling is a waste of time and just gives the Indians a monopoly. Might as well make some of the money yourself.
pessimizer 4y ago
> At least lotteries supposedly go towards public projects. They don't, it's a scam. Other than that the fact that money is fungible (so sending lottery money to schools really doesn't mean anything), when you crack open the books (which is never done, and there are always contracts that include never doing it), they don't make money. In Illinois, which has always had a huge lottery, it never even broke even. Lotteries are just one of the many vehicles for politician self-dealing.
- nl 4y ago
  It seems hard for a lottery to actually make a loss! I did some googling and then Illinois lottery did make a loss in 2015 due to increased advertising spend: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150917/NEWS02/150919839/illinois-lottery-loses-money https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150917/NEWS02/1509... Apart from that I don't see any evidence for your claims. Do you have a link?

by ilaksh 4y ago

thebigjewbowski 4y ago

The state taxes casinos and sports books an insane amount on top of regular federal taxes and whatnot. It’s not totally extractive but they are obviously still profitable. The thing is, everyone gambled before legalization. You didn’t even need a bookie, every online casino has taken bets from US citizens and then pay no taxes to the state or country. Bookies are even worse than online casinos because they offer a line of credit and later coerce you to give up your business, sell drugs, etc. All in all it’s very similar to drugs. People are going to do it anyway, might as well make it legal. You can contact any casino and request to be excluded from play indefinitely. You can set deposit limits and cannot lift them for a month at a time. There’s some “harm reduction” required by law.

Cupertino95014 4y ago
No, "everyone" did not gamble. Some people did, but others didn't want to enough to find a bookie or try an online casino. "People are going to do it anyway" -- wrong, some people are going to do it. Many will not if it's illegal.
- thebigjewbowski 4y ago
  Many people still don’t ;). I’m one of the only software engineers I know who gambles on sports or plays cards. Sports gambling has been legal in the UK and other parts of the EU for a long time. Betting on horses and dogs, too, has been legal for forever.
  - Cupertino95014 4y ago
    Yeah, I've seen or been on several work trips to Vegas, and only a few people gambled. It doesn't appeal to everyone.

code_duck 4y ago

I'm still perplexed at how casinos are all over the US now. Growing up in the 80s, the story was 'gambling is bad and thus illegal everywhere, except horse tracks and for some reason Nevada'. Then of course casinos on reservations started opening all over, close to and even in the middle cities (Fond-du-Luth in Minnesota, for instance, is directly in downtown Duluth).

coding123 4y ago
Welcome to the end of times. Same here, I remember a society that was fair, hard working and not filled with crazies.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  What country are you from?
jonathankoren 4y ago
Growing up in the Midwest, we got riverboat gambling, and watched the inevitable slide to just casinos. For those that aren’t aware, this was the basic history. Casinos are bad. Ban them. Casinos are bad, but maybe profitable. Let’s have a few, but we’ll put them on 19th century style paddlewheel riverboats, and make the boat go out into the river for an hour long cruise to limit access. Okay, the boat can remained docked, but it will still “cruise” for an hour before people are allowed on and off. Okay, so maybe the boat can actually be in an artificial pond, that’s only about a foot bigger than the boat, as long as that “boat in a moat” is within some small number of miles from an approved gambling river. These boats will also “go cruising”, and since they are boats, they will be regulated by the US Coast Guard, and be required to have enough life jackets for the maximum occupancy of the boat, even though if the boat were to “sink” it would only fall 12 inches to the bottom of the moat. Okay, so maybe the boats don’t have to “cruise” and people can just come and go from the gambling floor whenever they want. Okay. Let’s just have a regular casino in a regular building, nowhere near a river.
ifsothen 4y ago
Native Americans are allowed to operate casinos on their land, state laws to the contrary be damned. So if there's an Indian reservation near your cities, banning gambling is a waste of time and just gives the Indians a monopoly. Might as well make some of the money yourself.

pessimizer 4y ago

> At least lotteries supposedly go towards public projects. They don't, it's a scam. Other than that the fact that money is fungible (so sending lottery money to schools really doesn't mean anything), when you crack open the books (which is never done, and there are always contracts that include never doing it), they don't make money. In Illinois, which has always had a huge lottery, it never even broke even. Lotteries are just one of the many vehicles for politician self-dealing.

nl 4y ago
It seems hard for a lottery to actually make a loss! I did some googling and then Illinois lottery did make a loss in 2015 due to increased advertising spend: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150917/NEWS02/150919839/illinois-lottery-loses-money https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150917/NEWS02/1509... Apart from that I don't see any evidence for your claims. Do you have a link?