"You can't fix stupid" doesn't entail that you shouldn't regulate activities with potentially catastrophic consequences for families. It entails the opposite.

"You can't fix stupid" doesn't entail that you shouldn't regulate activities with potentially catastrophic consequences for families. It entails the opposite. We can, and should mitigate the harm to individuals and families that stems from said "stupidity" through... precisely... regulation. Go to a GA meeting some time. People who develop crippling gambling addictions are exposed to gambling precisely through going to a casino "as a gag to throw away expendable income," the same way most alcoholics are exposed to alcohol through casual, healthy drinking. No one walks into a casino thinking "let's throw my life and the financial security of my family away," and the proclivity for such is not readily predictable with any meaningful precision at present. The inference to draw from this is that we should reduce harm through regulation, not double down on the damage we're causing and writing off the resulting, predictable damage as immaterial because the "people were stupid." Like... what is your actual goal? Increasing human misery? Creating a society in which people predictably suffer from the predictable, catastrophic consequences of unregulated enterprise? (This isn't even touching the blanket categorization of everyone who develops a crippling addiction as "stupid," which doesn't withstand even superficial scrutiny. What's the point of that blanket demonization?) The medicalization of the underlying problem should push you towards an epidemiological perspective on the problem, not a thin, incoherent moralizing knee-jerk. Like... "you can't fix stupid" - sure, my grandmother was scammed while declining into (heretofore undiagnosed) dementia. Is the inference to draw "she's stupid, let's permit unfettered exploitation of people?" No, it's let's keep financial fraud illegal, prosecute the scammers, take some steps to help grandma prevent a repeat, and behave like sane, compassionate individuals.