[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.

[epolanski]

I can't think of any addiction worse than gambling. It can ruin the life of a family quickly whereas all other addictions are in general only self destructive.

[nkrisc]

Those things should really be illegal too, I think, even as someone who enjoys alcohol.

The costs to society due to alcohol and the like are massive for essentially no real benefit.

Yes, I know what happened during prohibition. That still doesn’t mean alcohol is good for society.

[autoexec]

Regulation and education are where the sane middle ground is. You don't outright ban the stuff (which is expensive and doesn't work anyway) but you keep the worst of the harms it causes from getting too out of control. Sadly, gambling is under-regulated and we'll probably all be suffering for a while as a result before regulations are tightened back up.

[butlike]

Alcohol is the only painkiller which can be infinitely self-administered. There's value in that. It's quite ancient, been proven to work, which is why it's probably stuck around so long.