381–390 of 479 posts
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In the early to mid 2000s we used to do MTG booster drafts at the local game shop. Maybe the experience was different for different people.
I knew a guy back then who would blow hundreds every couple of weeks on booster packs. It was surreal to watch. MTG was everything to him. This was around 2002—2004.
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> Addictions are a symptom of having an excessive amount of free time, floating money and lack of fear of reprisal from family and society and lack of basic wisdom. Sure, or any of the other million reasons people get addicted, like despair, or other healthier activities being too expensive. Super weird take.
Explain why there were hardly any addicts among peasant communities in rural third world countries back in the 70's or 80's.
What happened to America. Maybe 70's or 40's were it's peak. Every activity has become a betting. Investments, sports, relationships, home-buying. Addictions are a symptom of having an excessive amount of free time, floating money and lack of fear of reprisal from family and society and lack of basic wisdom. Excessive prosperity breaks social rythm. It removes dependencies and relations across individuals. It's like…
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A state is funding essential public services not through productive economic activity, but by extracting money from people losing bets
Taxing productive economic activity is bad
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> In the US, the Democrats as a party are center-left. The case of US Democrats is an example of how useless the 1-dimensional classification is. They can be very socially progressive which would seem to put them well into the "left-wing" territory, but economically they're in the right-wing territory. Economically speaking, a candidate like Sanders (considered to be too radical even by the Democrats and painted as a…
Ok great, now do other continents? I'm not sure what the obsession I often read is comparing politics with other Continents, not countries. There are some EU laws that are more conservative and some that are less, proponents of policies often cherry-pick the ones that match their ideology leaving out others. Even worse is they ignore the problems that the policies they agree with are causing those countries, but ends…
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The Pokémon card mania in particular is deeply weird to me. I play Magic at a local card shop a few times a month and it’s always full of people playing Magic, D&D, or various board games. I don’t think I’ve seen a single person playing the Pokémon card game. So who’s buying the valuable singles? What’s keeping the market afloat? It’s bizarre.
Pokémon TCG seems to have turned into a contest among opportunistic resellers to see who can buy up all of the cards and sell them to ... collectors? Other resellers? Who knows? Which is a shame, since the game itself is actually fun. Or it would be if you could buy the cards easily and cheaply.
tldr: fights, and watch someone buy the entire shelf at walmart in one transaction.
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Gamblers know the odds are stacked against them yet they end up stuck in a psychological prison within their own brain that they can't escape from even if they realize what they do is harmful. Maybe a better law: check id, you are not allowed to take from any gambler more than 10 bets a year and no bet can be over 1k. For big gamblers, we can have "qualified gamblers" rules like we do for qualified investors. Funny h…
Gamblers know the odds are stacked against them and still gamble...because it is fun. You realise that people waste their money on things that are significantly less understandable than gambling. Do you see someone driving a Ferrari and seethe with rage because Ferrari doesn't run a "qualified driver" program?
Either way, Ferrari is selling cars. Not dreams of riches.
This line from the ads always strikes me as darkly ironic: > if you need help making responsible choices, call… Like, the only “responsible” choice is not to gamble online. What do they even think we’re supposed to take away from that line of the commercial?
> the only “responsible” choice is not to gamble online I don't gamble at all in any form, but I still firmly disagree. Some people enjoy gambling in a way that never hurts them-- I've known countless friends and coworkers who talk about doing a bit of it in Vegas or what have you. You're saying every last one is a degenerate gambler somehow concealing it totally from me? They know they're not going net positive on t…
It feels like banning advertising for gambling would be a sweet spot between harm reduction and maintaining individual liberty. Sports gambling ads have ruined sports media. State lottery ads are even worse. The government should not spend money to encourage its own citizens to partake in harmful activities.
> The government should not spend money to encourage its own citizens to partake in harmful activities.
That's what goverment ever do.
But if you want to outlaw this harmful activity [licensed gambling], you have to find a way to replace 6.4% of Maryland’s budget, which is slightly less than the entire amount the state brings in from corporate taxes. A fraction of the proceeds of losing bets from a fraction of Maryland's citizens contributes almost the same to state services -- EMS, education, road maintenance, etc -- than the total corporate taxes…