U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, Not Just Sports Bets

Post by gojomo » Tue, Jan 15, 2019, 10:05 PM UTC

defertoreptar wrote: post #66

gojomo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

University of Wellington (New Zealand) 'PredictIt', like the University of Iowa 'Iowa Electronic Markets', operates with the specific permission of the US federal regulatory agency (CFTC) that would otherwise regulate their tradable contracts. See for example: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7047-14

> to operate a not-for-profit market for event contracts, and to offer event contracts to U.S. persons, without registration as a designated contract market, foreign board of trade, or swap execution facility, and without registration of its operators. My understanding is that they don't need to register as an exchange because of this. That doesn't necessarily absolve them of being a form of gambling, does it?

Post by EpicEng » Tue, Jan 15, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #70

MRD85 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Australia, which has very relaxed gambling laws. I can walk into most pubs/bars in my city and find poker machines for example, as well as a sports/horse betting facility. There are huge social consequences to gambling. If you look at an entire society you have some people that will have problems with it and some people that won't. You may fall into the "won't" pile but surely society benefits if we prevent…

> surely society benefits if we prevent a large number of our members from falling prey to addiction. how does society benefit from prohibiting people from doing things that only hurt themselves?

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Jan 15, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #35

MRD85 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Australia, which has very relaxed gambling laws. I can walk into most pubs/bars in my city and find poker machines for example, as well as a sports/horse betting facility. There are huge social consequences to gambling. If you look at an entire society you have some people that will have problems with it and some people that won't. You may fall into the "won't" pile but surely society benefits if we prevent…

I live in the USA, which has very relaxed alcohol laws. I can walk into most pubs/bars in my city and find people getting extremely drunk for example, as well as a retail liquor facilities. There are huge social consequences to drinking. If you look at an entire society you have some people that will have problems with it and some people that won't. You may fall into the "won't" pile but surely society benefits if we…

Post by leetcrew » Tue, Jan 15, 2019, 10:11 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #96

leetcrew wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surely society benefits if we prevent a large number of our members from falling prey to addiction. how does society benefit from prohibiting people from doing things that only hurt themselves?

A retired fireman pissing his life savings away into a slot machine hurts me, because now I have to either support him, or deal with him sleeping between the dumpsters, in my building's back alley. Slot machines are a hack that exploits human psychology, to the loss of everyone, and the benefit of... Casino owners. I understand that people want to gamble. I also think that it should be aggressively discouraged.

Post by paulcole » Tue, Jan 15, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

Ajedi32 wrote: post #104

paulcole wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're just rephrasing it. How about: I'm betting State Farm $12 a month my apartment will burn down before I die or move out.

Think of it this way: if your apartment burns down and you don't have insurance, you lose your apartment and everything in it. If your apartment burns down and you do have insurance, you still lose your apartment, but that loss is completely (at least in an ideal world) offset by money provided by the insurance company. Which scenario is the bigger gamble?