5 ms·

I’ve thought it would be a good idea for states to issue “licenses” for many vices. Want to buy alcohol or go to a casino? You need to take a short course on th

I’ve thought it would be a good idea for states to issue “licenses” for many vices. Want to buy alcohol or go to a casino? You need to take a short course on the dangers of it and how to be safe. If you act irresponsibly by over drinking or driving drunk, then you can get your drinking license suspended. For gambling, you could limit how long a person stays inside a casino over a period of time, limit how many bets they place over a period of time, or how much money they lose. Yeah, it’s a little nanny state-ish in the case of gambling, but there’s clearly some social harm going on there that states recognize by already controlling gambling.

bergenty 4y ago
It’s not going to work for everything. Most (not an exaggeration) men have wanted to sleep with 13-14 year olds in pretty much every society in history. How do you propose we satisfy that need?
- Cupertino95014 4y ago
  We don't satisfy it. Lots of people want to kill their enemies, too. They seem to find the criminal penalties sufficiently deterring.
Cupertino95014 4y ago
This is actually not a terrible idea, but enforcing it might prove hard. I don't think your average casino right now keeps a young parent from gambling away the rent money. On the other hand, bars can and do refuse to give you any more alcohol.
- baron816 4y ago
  I don’t think it would be that hard to enforce with pretty basic software. Casinos have to get a license to operate as is. They would scan people as they place bets. Casinos might even get behind it since they would get access to the data—they’d immediately know who the high rollers are, who the cheaters are, what games people like, etc.
  - Cupertino95014 4y ago
    They know most of that already. If you go a lot and gamble (and lose, but that goes without saying), they will start offering you freebies. I'm not sure if they know "this person can't afford to lose anymore" though.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Casinos are two steps ahead of ya: https://casino.betmgm.com/en/blog/facial-recognition-in-casinos/ https://casino.betmgm.com/en/blog/facial-recognition-in-casi...
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Many casinos in the US operate on tribal land and are to a large extent independent of state, and in cases even national, regulation. Primary regulatory authority lies with the US Department of Interior, under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gaming_Regulatory_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gaming_Regulatory_Act>
Test0129 4y ago
A little nanny-state-ish? Proposing licensing for this is akin to proposing licensing for nearly anything else that requires a modicum of personal responsibility. I'm not here to defend the casinos but this proposition is crazy and I'd actively advocate against it. Let's ignore the obvious non-starters like costs because the obvious deterrent is this: make it difficult to get started gambling by capitalizing on people's laziness. They wont go to the class, so they won't go gamble, right? They won't go to class to learn about the dangers of drinking so they won't drink, right? The first counterpoint is arguably the simplest. In both cases, gambling and alcohol, doing it "under the table" is simple. There is arguably no difference between buying/making a set of dice, setting up a wood box in your house (or a cardboard box on the street) and playing craps. In fact, the odds are better doing this so you'll likely gain more customers. Benefit? It's easy to pack up, move, and keep secret. Nevada has an entire wing of the police dedicated to finding people gambling in their homes and it nets what I can only imagine is a grand average of 0 arrests per year. For alcohol, it's absolutely trivial to make swill. If you really want it, you're a yeast packet and fruit juice away from it. You can even make it with bread. Alcoholics don't care about flavor. If they do, you can distill your swill further and flavor it for less than $100 more. Is the goal then to require a license to buy copper pipes? Torches? How many licenses do I need before I need a separate bag for them? How many regulations will be propose on businesses before doing something like gambling or drinking alcohol require a NICS background check and re-taking a class every 2 years? For things that are successfully licensed a few things need to happen. 1. It must be non-trivial for a person to start doing. Making pharmaceuticals is an example of this. Even trivial street drugs like heroin and cocaine are not room temperature IQ simple to manufacture. Many drugs require a full blown BSc/MSc in chemistry to even begin to understand. 2. The ability to acquire the components to do the thing must be reduced to the point it becomes impossible for a non-licensed person to get it. Again, manufacturing drugs is an example of this. With these two in place you can successfully regulate something. Otherwise, the regulation will fail at the start. At some point we must accept personal responsibility for our own vices. People attending GA or AA have done this. If you are predisposed to blowing 8x your net worth at a casino it's YOUR responsibility to not gamble. The casino can't be responsible for your own problems. Now, it's true the casinos do very little to stop someone from taking out a credit line at the cage, nor do they do anything to actively stop an obvious problem gambler. This is an avenue for change. Liquor stores often stop "regulars" from buying another liter of popov. But to propose licensing? Insane.
throwaway675309 4y ago
Why stop at gambling? Excessive gaming can also lead to social harm so obviously we're going to want to make sure that we have consoles that turn off after a certain duration of time allowing for a daily maximal quota. I'm all for advocation in terms of education but that's the line, it's not the states responsibility nor anywhere in their purview to impose regulations on how a person chooses to spend their time. It's deeply frightening how easily people advocate for these things without realizing that establishing precedent can quickly lead to the infringement of civil liberties.
- cmeacham98 4y ago
  This is like saying "Why stop at motor vehicle licenses? People can harm (even rarely kill!) themselves and others on bikes, we should have bike licenses too!" The likelihood and potency of gambling to ruin your life is orders of magnitude above gaming.
googlryas 4y ago
You can get yourself permanently blacklisted at any casino by just asking - even inveterate gambling addicts have brief moments of clarity. You don't even need to run naked down the slot aisles and belly flop onto the craps table.

bergenty 4y ago

It’s not going to work for everything. Most (not an exaggeration) men have wanted to sleep with 13-14 year olds in pretty much every society in history. How do you propose we satisfy that need?

Cupertino95014 4y ago
We don't satisfy it. Lots of people want to kill their enemies, too. They seem to find the criminal penalties sufficiently deterring.

Cupertino95014 4y ago

This is actually not a terrible idea, but enforcing it might prove hard. I don't think your average casino right now keeps a young parent from gambling away the rent money. On the other hand, bars can and do refuse to give you any more alcohol.

baron816 4y ago
I don’t think it would be that hard to enforce with pretty basic software. Casinos have to get a license to operate as is. They would scan people as they place bets. Casinos might even get behind it since they would get access to the data—they’d immediately know who the high rollers are, who the cheaters are, what games people like, etc.
- Cupertino95014 4y ago
  They know most of that already. If you go a lot and gamble (and lose, but that goes without saying), they will start offering you freebies. I'm not sure if they know "this person can't afford to lose anymore" though.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Casinos are two steps ahead of ya: https://casino.betmgm.com/en/blog/facial-recognition-in-casinos/ https://casino.betmgm.com/en/blog/facial-recognition-in-casi...
dredmorbius 4y ago
Many casinos in the US operate on tribal land and are to a large extent independent of state, and in cases even national, regulation. Primary regulatory authority lies with the US Department of Interior, under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gaming_Regulatory_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gaming_Regulatory_Act>

Test0129 4y ago

A little nanny-state-ish? Proposing licensing for this is akin to proposing licensing for nearly anything else that requires a modicum of personal responsibility. I'm not here to defend the casinos but this proposition is crazy and I'd actively advocate against it. Let's ignore the obvious non-starters like costs because the obvious deterrent is this: make it difficult to get started gambling by capitalizing on people's laziness. They wont go to the class, so they won't go gamble, right? They won't go to class to learn about the dangers of drinking so they won't drink, right? The first counterpoint is arguably the simplest. In both cases, gambling and alcohol, doing it "under the table" is simple. There is arguably no difference between buying/making a set of dice, setting up a wood box in your house (or a cardboard box on the street) and playing craps. In fact, the odds are better doing this so you'll likely gain more customers. Benefit? It's easy to pack up, move, and keep secret. Nevada has an entire wing of the police dedicated to finding people gambling in their homes and it nets what I can only imagine is a grand average of 0 arrests per year. For alcohol, it's absolutely trivial to make swill. If you really want it, you're a yeast packet and fruit juice away from it. You can even make it with bread. Alcoholics don't care about flavor. If they do, you can distill your swill further and flavor it for less than $100 more. Is the goal then to require a license to buy copper pipes? Torches? How many licenses do I need before I need a separate bag for them? How many regulations will be propose on businesses before doing something like gambling or drinking alcohol require a NICS background check and re-taking a class every 2 years? For things that are successfully licensed a few things need to happen. 1. It must be non-trivial for a person to start doing. Making pharmaceuticals is an example of this. Even trivial street drugs like heroin and cocaine are not room temperature IQ simple to manufacture. Many drugs require a full blown BSc/MSc in chemistry to even begin to understand. 2. The ability to acquire the components to do the thing must be reduced to the point it becomes impossible for a non-licensed person to get it. Again, manufacturing drugs is an example of this. With these two in place you can successfully regulate something. Otherwise, the regulation will fail at the start. At some point we must accept personal responsibility for our own vices. People attending GA or AA have done this. If you are predisposed to blowing 8x your net worth at a casino it's YOUR responsibility to not gamble. The casino can't be responsible for your own problems. Now, it's true the casinos do very little to stop someone from taking out a credit line at the cage, nor do they do anything to actively stop an obvious problem gambler. This is an avenue for change. Liquor stores often stop "regulars" from buying another liter of popov. But to propose licensing? Insane.

throwaway675309 4y ago

Why stop at gambling? Excessive gaming can also lead to social harm so obviously we're going to want to make sure that we have consoles that turn off after a certain duration of time allowing for a daily maximal quota. I'm all for advocation in terms of education but that's the line, it's not the states responsibility nor anywhere in their purview to impose regulations on how a person chooses to spend their time. It's deeply frightening how easily people advocate for these things without realizing that establishing precedent can quickly lead to the infringement of civil liberties.

cmeacham98 4y ago
This is like saying "Why stop at motor vehicle licenses? People can harm (even rarely kill!) themselves and others on bikes, we should have bike licenses too!" The likelihood and potency of gambling to ruin your life is orders of magnitude above gaming.

googlryas 4y ago

You can get yourself permanently blacklisted at any casino by just asking - even inveterate gambling addicts have brief moments of clarity. You don't even need to run naked down the slot aisles and belly flop onto the craps table.