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

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

#81

Post by nine_k »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #69
331c8c71 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet the better off do gamble on the financial markets though

When they do it, it's gambling. When we do it, it's investing.

Investing is putting money into (hopefully) productive use, like a company with revenue, in an expectation of a return.

Gambling is basically redistributing money according to a random numbers generator, It's a negative sum game (because the house takes its fee), but a surprise positive spike game. That spike forms an addiction in the less fortunate.

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

#82

Post by soulofmischief »

kriops wrote: post #22
angarg12 wrote: post #16

I left my home country over 10 years ago, and ever since I've travelled back once every 1 or 2 years. Since 4-5 years ago I started to notice these betting houses cropping up where my family and friends live. They are impossible to miss, with big pictures of different sports and no windows. The most important thing to notice is where these place are and are not. They proliferate in working class and less well off nei…

Guilt by association: If, e.g., violence is a problem, then one needs to deal with the violence. In general, law-abiding citizens are—and should—be free to congregate and partake in their bad habits wherever they please. And even though gambling is generally immoral, it does not infringe on anyone else's God-given rights and has no business being made illegal. Gambling is emphasized above to emphasize we are talking…

This argument doesn't account for the inherent, drastic power imbalance between the average participant of gambling and the average owner of a gambling center.

Gambling between people, a basement poker game, that's fine, that's no one's business.

Handing your money over to rich people operating black boxes that are designed from ground up to mesmerize and mind control you into emptying your wallet is a totally other story. On the individual level, it ruins the lives of anyone who is unable to resist or understand the psychological tricks employed on them. Zooming out, it destroys families, communities and in effect, societies.

If we are going to base the legality of gambling on consent and human rights, we have to recognize the limit where consent is no longer valid, due to sickening engagement tactics.

Someone's freedom to make money off of my ignorance or weakness does not supersede my right to self-determination and well-being, neither of which are possible when being hoodwinked by exploitative capitalists.

If we are to continue allowing corporate gambling operations and 24/7 mobile sports betting, we need to place serious restrictions on how these companies are allowed to operate.

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

#83

Post by psychoslave »

keanb wrote: post #65
nosianu wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they chose their genes and the structure of their brain after all, how irresponsible of them! /s In general, something that happens at scale and consistently is not an individual problem. You have whole armies of very well funded designers of things like processed food, or games, working to deliberate find the faults in human brains, and to make politicians make the laws that lets them do it legally, and you say…

[flagged]

Sure. Also blaming individual for consequences for societal constructe they fall into is typical of those who lake any sense of social responsibility.

I hope you can see how this kind of argument on themselves don't make anyone extend their perspective if no one challenge its own preconceptions.

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

#84

Post by keanb »

psychoslave wrote: post #83
keanb wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Sure. Also blaming individual for consequences for societal constructe they fall into is typical of those who lake any sense of social responsibility. I hope you can see how this kind of argument on themselves don't make anyone extend their perspective if no one challenge its own preconceptions.

[flagged]

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

#85

Post by lordnacho »

keanb wrote: post #58
Kudos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it does not infringe on anyone else's God-given rights Gamblers have lost their homes as a result of their addiction, I think that impact on their families counts for something.

[flagged]

So if your degenerate father gambles away your college fund, that's your personal responsibility?

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

#86

Post by jimbob45 »

eximius wrote: post #61

I mean, yes, but it's so far down the list of bad things for society we're facing right now. I'd rather we tackle the root problems leading to these. Increase education rather than reduce liberties. I'm not, like, strongly opposed to reducing this particular liberty, but man it's not my first priority.

Where do you put drugs and alcohol on that list? Because gambling surely has an equivalent ability to wreck careers and families.

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

#87

Post by RataNova »

daymanstep wrote: post #34
kriops wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guilt by association: If, e.g., violence is a problem, then one needs to deal with the violence. In general, law-abiding citizens are—and should—be free to congregate and partake in their bad habits wherever they please. And even though gambling is generally immoral, it does not infringe on anyone else's God-given rights and has no business being made illegal. Gambling is emphasized above to emphasize we are talking…

Sports betting is not a game of pure chance, but bookmaking is arguably ethically quite problematic. Most individuals are going up against these very sophisticated statistical models created by teams of quants working with huge datasets that you have to pay substantial amounts to access. I think most bettors don't know what they're up against. And the bookie business model is intrinsically anti-consumer: if you win t…

The whole "sports betting is a skill game" angle is technically true in theory, but in practice it's like showing up to a Formula 1 race on a tricycle

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

#89

Post by psychoslave »

keanb wrote: post #84
psychoslave wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Also blaming individual for consequences for societal constructe they fall into is typical of those who lake any sense of social responsibility. I hope you can see how this kind of argument on themselves don't make anyone extend their perspective if no one challenge its own preconceptions.

[flagged]

There is no such thing as individual, only a collection of cells. And no such thing as cells, just a bunch of atoms...

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

#90

Post by nine_k »

RataNova wrote: post #78
angarg12 wrote: post #16

I left my home country over 10 years ago, and ever since I've travelled back once every 1 or 2 years. Since 4-5 years ago I started to notice these betting houses cropping up where my family and friends live. They are impossible to miss, with big pictures of different sports and no windows. The most important thing to notice is where these place are and are not. They proliferate in working class and less well off nei…

It's frustrating because technically it's all "legal" and marketed as harmless entertainment, but in practice it’s just another way to extract money from people who have the least to spare

Maybe their having the least to spare is a consequence, and poor impulse control is the cause.

Anyway, it's like making money off other human deficiencies, say, poor vision or dyslexia, and mistakes made due to those. It feels unfair, it does not feel like a conscious choice. Hence the understandable backlash.

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