Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

Post by sethammons » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 9:42 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #122

keiferski wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast, vast majority of people that have gambling problems aren't making rational financial decisions like this. They're doing a habitual activity that is reinforced by bad actors trying to extract as much money from them as possible. This is especially noticeable with "traditional" offline gambling and lotteries - lower income people play them habitually from a kind of learned helplessness, not as a rational fina…

Sure, seems likely in a lot of cases. But if the starting point is talking about someone who makes chronically irrational decisions then life is going to seem a bit hopeless. The issue isn't as much they're giving up as it is that they aren't making rational decisions. Thread ancestor was saying "Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing". And I think that th…

Post by tgv » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 9:43 AM UTC

victorbjorklund wrote: post #119

keiferski wrote: post #67

The legalization and popularity of gambling is more than just an immoral activity that has negative societal effects. It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. If hard work or time doesn’t make your life better, then fate is just chance, and you might as well throw your…

I would say gambling in itself isnt immoral. The problem is that a small % of people get addicted and end up spending all their money and more on betting. And that the industry makes almost all their profits on those that are addicted.

Post by rf15 » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 9:45 AM UTC

Post by 1659447091 » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 9:53 AM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #141

1659447091 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the wiki page, Christianity from the bible's perspective doesn't have a problem with gambling itself: > Although the bible does not condemn gambling, instead the desire to get rich is called to account numerous times in the New Testament. And the Catholic's problem with it is the competition: > Some parish pastors have also opposed casinos for the additional reason that they would take customers away from church…

You left out the entire first half of the section on Catholicism, which is an extremely misleading move on your part: The Catholic Church holds the position that there is no moral impediment to gambling, so long as it is fair, all bettors have a reasonable chance of winning, there is no fraud involved, and the parties involved do not have actual knowledge of the outcome of the bet (unless they have disclosed this kno…

Post by dist-epoch » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 9:55 AM UTC

soulofmischief wrote: post #118

dist-epoch wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how do you feel about drug legalization.

The war on drugs should never have happened. It's been used a tool of foreign and domestic terror and control for a century. It was designed and popularized by corrupt people who stood to gain wealth from restricting the freedom of others. To your implied point, drug addictions similarly ravish communities, destroy lives, and in the case of drugs like fentanyl, legalization effectively makes it easy to acquire extrem…