3 ms·

The difference between a casino and a startup is that you're legally guaranteed to know all the rules of the casino. "Here is the game; here's how it's played;

The difference between a casino and a startup is that you're legally guaranteed to know all the rules of the casino. "Here is the game; here's how it's played; here are your odds." With a startup, information asymmetry virtually guarantees that crowds are least qualified to judge whether it will succeed. It's easy to trick people, and that's what the legislation is protecting against.

dnautics 12y ago
The difference between a casino and a startup is that you're legally guaranteed to know all the rules of the casino. "Here is the game; here's how it's played; here are your odds." Not quite. That's certainly true for roulette, and maybe craps, but only marginally true for poker, blackjack, pai gow, etc (although those odds are researchable). For machine gambling, the odds are dynamic, and the casino is allowed to non-transparently manipulate them.
- sillysaurus3 12y ago
  I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure when you set foot at a blackjack table at a US casino, there is almost 100% likelihood that you're going to be playing blackjack. This outcome was engineered by the legal system. It's no accident that there's no chance of you losing your money at a casino for reasons you couldn't have researched ahead of time. In other words, the rules of the game are public knowledge. With a startup, you could lose your money because the founders got into a squabble. Casino vs startup investing is therefore an invalid comparison.
  - ericd 12y ago
    There are lots of people who play blackjack in casinos who don't know the odds, or who at least fool themselves into thinking that the odds are in their favor. It's harder to estimate with startup investing in the case where you do your homework on both, but I think that if startup investing is heavily advertised as being a complete crapshoot with potentially huge returns, but most likely a complete loss, then people should be allowed to experiment with it. The proposed rules have spending limits to enforce that it's just dipping in, and not people dumping their life savings into things.
  - dnautics 12y ago
    the rules of the game are public knowledge For machine gambling, the odds are dynamic, and the casino is allowed to non-transparently manipulate them.

dnautics 12y ago

The difference between a casino and a startup is that you're legally guaranteed to know all the rules of the casino. "Here is the game; here's how it's played; here are your odds." Not quite. That's certainly true for roulette, and maybe craps, but only marginally true for poker, blackjack, pai gow, etc (although those odds are researchable). For machine gambling, the odds are dynamic, and the casino is allowed to non-transparently manipulate them.

sillysaurus3 12y ago
I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure when you set foot at a blackjack table at a US casino, there is almost 100% likelihood that you're going to be playing blackjack. This outcome was engineered by the legal system. It's no accident that there's no chance of you losing your money at a casino for reasons you couldn't have researched ahead of time. In other words, the rules of the game are public knowledge. With a startup, you could lose your money because the founders got into a squabble. Casino vs startup investing is therefore an invalid comparison.
- ericd 12y ago
  There are lots of people who play blackjack in casinos who don't know the odds, or who at least fool themselves into thinking that the odds are in their favor. It's harder to estimate with startup investing in the case where you do your homework on both, but I think that if startup investing is heavily advertised as being a complete crapshoot with potentially huge returns, but most likely a complete loss, then people should be allowed to experiment with it. The proposed rules have spending limits to enforce that it's just dipping in, and not people dumping their life savings into things.
- dnautics 12y ago
  the rules of the game are public knowledge For machine gambling, the odds are dynamic, and the casino is allowed to non-transparently manipulate them.