3 ms·
The difference is that while legalized gambling is bad, illegal gambling is much worse, it's more predatory where games can be outright rigged, and it's also fu
by marginalia_nu 4y ago
The difference is that while legalized gambling is bad, illegal gambling is much worse, it's more predatory where games can be outright rigged, and it's also funding organized crime and has a corrupting effect on society. A politician owing money to a bank is bad. The same owing money to a mob-affiliated loan shark is worse.
Banning this type of activity has historically proven difficult, it's basically the lesson we keep re-learning with the prohibition, the war on drugs and so forth.
- maxwell 4y ago> A politician owing money to a bank is bad. Why?
- marginalia_nu 4y agoSpeaking primarily in the context of being up to your ears in debt, but because it creates a conflict of interest. Such a person is a lot more susceptible to bribes as a means to get out of their predicament, because they can't afford to tell someone waving a bag of money in front of them to piss off. Debt is also something foreign intelligence looks for when attempting to recruit spies.
- germandiago 4y agoA politician is just another mafia in my eyes. There have been mafias that are not worse than politicians in history. Literally.
- felurx 4y agoI mean... That's not a very strong or interesting statement to make. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of mafias that did less bad than <insert your least favourite dictator here>.