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The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

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Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#151

Post by VectorLock »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #122
VectorLock wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its not a riddle or a metaphor, what is a "dopamine household" then?

Again, what do you think it is? I don't see anything it could be besides what was written. You could call it endocrine imbalance or disrupted hormone household if you wanted to be less precise and skirt around the actual biological problem, but it still doesn't change anything.

>Again, what do you think it is?

I don't know what it is, thats why I asked. Is the assertion that you're trying to make that drugs and gambling being addictive is a result of hormone imbalance in the addicts, rather than the addictive nature of those things?

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#152

Post by ball_of_lint »

Author makes a point badly, but there is an important point here.

It's really strange that we de-facto allow the few large credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard) to effectively impose their own particular views and values on what sorts of businesses can process payments. The stigma+roadblocks against these "high-risk categories" generally doesn't come from the processors (like Stripe, Adyen), but are actually driven by the networks themselves, in response to lobbying by groups such as Collective Shout. https://nabesaka.com/visa-mastercard-deciding-content-legali...

Whatever you think about NSFW media or gambling in particular, you _should_ worry that Visa and/or Mastercard could decide tomorrow that they don't want to process payments for you and cause you to lose your livelihood.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#154

Post by abigail95 »

Scaled wrote: post #126

On the topic of operating costs, the annual "high risk" credit card fees just went up to nearly $2k/year. High risk in quotes because even if you have stellar charge back rates you still get hit with it (did you know the charge back rate for adult is way, way less than the chargeback rate for travel?). The card networks have something called virp/bram, which is basically designed to force adult merchants into paying…

Adult websites have chargeback rates from single to double digits depending on the product. Airlines/Hotels/Uber/Cruises/Car Rentals do not approach this. You are off by one or two orders of magnitude.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#155

Post by fasterik »

gwbas1c wrote: post #117

Wow, I'm shocked at the negative attitudes in this thread. Porn and gambling are legit businesses, even if you don't like it. (And some people used to argue that part of the rise of the PC was because some people bought it as a "porn machine.") It's important to keep these things (almost) in the open, because when they become illegal, criminals move in and people get hurt. When I was an intern at a big-name, conserva…

I've also been shocked by the censoriousness around gambling in particular on HN recently. I feel like this is filtering in from some culture war that I'm not exposed to as a part of my information diet.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#156

Post by john_strinlai »

mcmcmc wrote: post #118
jmkd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay sounds like we agree that sugar and junk food should be on the wrong side of the line, but turns out those industries have very little stigma. Who is standing outside the school gates protesting against big cola? My point is it's complicated, ambiguous, sometimes hypocritical, differs by jurisdiction and so on. None of it is clear.

Ah yes, the great evil of sugar… which our bodies require for energy. Seriously, your brain needs glucose. Ask a diabetic if sugar is evil

when people talk about sugar in the unhealthy context, they are referring to things like how a single can of dr. pepper has 40-50 grams of sugar in it.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#157

Post by paulddraper »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #46
joosters wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the more relevant point is: But almost all social networks and search engines won’t let you advertise without a license from the required jurisdiction. Which is a good thing! This is an area full of scammers, if you can't set up your business legally, I'm very happy to hear it's more difficult for you to advertise it.

I mean, you also can't advertise illegal drugs either. Doesn't seem to curb demand though. It may actually be more beneficial to allow these things more broadly, because then social safety features can be wedged in between consumers and suppliers more easily and they don't have to deal with a gigantic shadow market that already gets stigmatised to death by the rest of the population. Just accept that a certain percen…

It does curb demand.

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#158

Post by rationalist »

Scaled wrote: post #126

On the topic of operating costs, the annual "high risk" credit card fees just went up to nearly $2k/year. High risk in quotes because even if you have stellar charge back rates you still get hit with it (did you know the charge back rate for adult is way, way less than the chargeback rate for travel?). The card networks have something called virp/bram, which is basically designed to force adult merchants into paying…

> did you know the charge back rate for adult is way, way less than the chargeback rate for travel?

No; source?

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#159

Post by redanddead »

fasterik wrote: post #155
gwbas1c wrote: post #117

Wow, I'm shocked at the negative attitudes in this thread. Porn and gambling are legit businesses, even if you don't like it. (And some people used to argue that part of the rise of the PC was because some people bought it as a "porn machine.") It's important to keep these things (almost) in the open, because when they become illegal, criminals move in and people get hurt. When I was an intern at a big-name, conserva…

I've also been shocked by the censoriousness around gambling in particular on HN recently. I feel like this is filtering in from some culture war that I'm not exposed to as a part of my information diet.

Hmm.. I've had some customers be gamblers. It's kind of sad to see. These are like middle aged dads of various economic classes that are desperately chasing a high when they should be focused on their families. To me, gambling and porn are yet more strains on the most important social institution: the family. It's fun, but it's bad for society, for those who care about that

Re: The operating cost of adult and gambling startups

#160

Post by leetrout »

theorchid wrote: post #80
leetrout wrote: post #57

The title is "Stigma is a tax on every operational decision"

Thank you for pointing that out! But since HN allows any title, I chose the one that best suits the HN audience.

"Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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