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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

I don't agree with the article's presentation, but the idea might not be inherently worthless.

Gambling which abstractly seems rather harmless has been banned. So, some taking a hard look at highly additive gamely seems reasonable IMO.

Edited: I put drugs in a similar category, but I can see people disagreeing with that.

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I agree that gambling is indeed bad, but gambling is not some sort of outgrowth of capitalism. You do not need captialism to gamble and one does not beget the other. The "game" makers are simply bad people exploiting others. These bad people would simply be bad in a different way in a socialist country.

Fair point. However, there are a bunch of complex laws in the US around gambling and gambling as a business is often banned where doing the same things as individuals is more often legal. Old but interesting: http://fortune.com/2011/02/15/was-my-sports-bet-legal/

Which I think get's into the same incentives as these games. If the house get's a cut of from poker players without risks they have reason to promote addiction. On the other hand friends playing for bubble gum can enjoy betting without meaningful downsides.

I don't think their are clear cut answers, but special regulations for companies due to the nature of capitalism has precedent in the US.

I think that the danger is: you make a law to protect idiots from their own stupidity and end up breaking normal business activity somehow, or creating a regulatory environment that's a pain in the ass for entrepreneurs and whatnot.

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