[entropyneur]

Stock market integrity is important because of their function in the economy. Scamming of gambling addicts is tragic but not detrimental to society.

[anonymous908213]

That is one of the takes I've ever read. There is a reason gambling is so tightly regulated worldwide, and it's certainly not because governments hate easy vice tax revenue. Gambling debt destroys family units, increases poverty rates (most notably for the children of gambling addicts -- the consequences are not localised only to the person making the bad decisions), and increases violent crime rates. Gambling is massively detrimental to society. There can be arguments in allowing people to do things that are detrimental to society in the name of freedom, but it's not a great thing to pretend those detriments don't exist at all.

[_heimdall]

Do you know of any studies that can accurately show the correlation between gambling and societal costs? On the surface the link makes sense to me and seems like it should be right, though I'm not sure how we could have tested it in a controlled way to really know the link exists.

[nl]

> Scamming of gambling addicts is tragic but not detrimental to society.

This isn't true.

  each 10 per cent increase in gambling expenditure in NSW results in more than

    4,500 additional assaults
    2,800 additional home break-ins
    1,300 additional break and enter (non-dwelling) offences
    1,400 additional motor vehicle thefts
    2,300 additional stealing from motor vehicle thefts
    3,800 additional fraud offences each year

https://www.connections.edu.au/news/strong-link-between-gamb...

> Stock market integrity is important because of their function in the economy

Some might argue that people - including gambling addicts, and those impacted by their addiction - might possibly be more important than one of many possible financial mechanisms for free enterprise.

[moring]

Is that NSW = New South Wales? I'm asking because Wikipedia lists New South Wales as a population of only 8.5 million, and those crime numbers are insanely huge relative to that.

[butlike]

Right, it's almost like necessity and desperation cause people to do desperate things. If I take your money and give you no resource in return, that's a degeneration.

[ace32229]

You are ignoring the point of TFA. Kalshi & Polymarkets provide a marketplace to monetise political decision-making, a.k.a corruption. This is definitely detrimental to society.

[jedimastert]

First of all, anyone getting scammed is detrimental to society because society is made out of people and those are people getting scammed. Gambling addicts are not less important than wealthy people.

Second, these markets are generating new gambling addicts, which is wildly and provably detrimental to society.

[dns_snek]

Just so we're clear on the standards of solidarity here, someone murdering your entire family would be tragic but not detrimental to society. How much should society do to prevent that from happening?

[rl3]

>Scamming of gambling addicts is tragic but not detrimental to society.

It certainly is at scale.

[bsder]

> Scamming of gambling addicts is tragic but not detrimental to society.

I used to believe that. With the legalization of all the sports betting and how fast it can drain a gambler which can then affect the gambler's family, I'm now pretty much on the other side of the fence.

Just like we banned public smoking because of the effects of secondhand smoke, I'm pretty convinced that the secondary effects of gambling means it needs to go back to being banned. I don't see an obvious way to legislate gambling to prevent the auxiliary victims. It doesn't help that getting maximum profit as a bookie means being part of a group of the scummiest people on the planet who will stoop to anything to drain people of their money as fast as possible.

[throwaway173738]

The sports betting sites even have account managers who are tasked with keeping people on the sites even after the user has decided to quit. It’s so lucrative they can afford to pay people to sit and text gambling addicts.

[neutronicus]

Sports betting is particularly galling because the actual prediction is so unimportant. The only real reason to care whether Jontay Porter is credited with three or fewer rebounds in a basketball game is to win a bet about it.

You're encouraging people to waste their money just so that you can use the Wisdom of Crowds to predict something completely worthless.

[kleene_op]

Depends on how many of those gambling addicts there are.

If a huge enough portion of the population try to solve the statue quo of their economic problems by betting all on red, that's not gonna be great for society, including those who don't gamble.

[nkrisc]

The gambling industry itself is a net drain on society.

What is the societal benefit provided by it?

[sznio]

>What is the societal benefit provided by it?

Same as beer or any other drug - just a way to have some fun and not destructive provided you can control yourself.

Though, the one time I opened a CSGO gun case and felt the dopamine rush, it was way stronger than any drug I've done. Not that I'm a "highly-experienced individual", but alcohol, weed or adderall don't come close to a CSGO case. Gambling feels much riskier.

[jstanley]

Some people want to gamble and the gambling industry provides what they want.

How would you like it if people who didn't care about your hobby started questioning the social benefit of allowing you to do it?

[butlike]

Entertainment.

It's also the only vice you don't have to ingest an outside substance for.

[sarky-litso]

Have you watched sports recently? Gambling has always had a negative effect on the perceived fairness but once that effect becomes a core part of the way the sport is monetized it gets even worse for everyone involved. Watching playoff games last weekend either Draft Kings or Fan Duel showed an ad where a single person in a crowded bar is cheering wildly by themselves while looking at their parlay bet or whatever on their phone - this isolation of the communal experience alone is a definitely a negative effect but I could go on...

[modriano]

Gambling is frying the brains of a disturbing proportion of genZ and millennial men. It's destroying sports and infecting politics. It's quite detrimental to society.

[bradhe]

Except when "gambling adicts" end up as a cover for money laundering and funneling cash to people to buy influence.

[butlike]

People do that with drugs too. I'm not pro gambling, but what's your point?

[victorbjorklund]

Until people are making money and affecting the world. Let's say that you're someone close to Trump and you have betted a very large sum that Trump should take a certain action. Are you going to try to make him take that action even if at that point it turns out to be the worst decision for the country and the world?