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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

Casinos provide leisure and entertainment. If what you're actually trying to say is that they are overall a net harm, then I'd point out that imperial mercantilism was also quite harmful to many people. At least MGM hasn't overthrown any countries.

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In exactly the same way a heroin dealer provides leisure and entertainment. Selling access to an inherently addictive substance should not be a for profit endeavor. The incentives are inherently biased towards harming people for profit.

You say this as if "addictive" and "harmful" are boolean concepts. These concepts have a wide spectrum in reality. People die every day from addictions to all kinds of socially acceptable products and services, whether it be the dopamine rush from an unhealthy or dangerous activity, a buzz from their favorite beverage, or the sugar rush from an unhealthy snack.

I encourage you to walk through some casinos and take stock of what you see. The scales of enrichment and addiction are nowhere near the balance of candy and soda.

The most harmful things inside of a casino are the bar, the buffet, and the cigarettes.

> I encourage you to walk through some casinos and take stock of what you see.

I have spent a lot of time at casinos with family members who love eating, drinking, smoking, and gambling. Know what I've seen? I've seen that gambling is the only one of the four that hasn't killed at least one of my family members.

Lots and lots of gambling addicts die through suicide. Is there some reason this is less attributable to gambling as a cause than lung cancer is to smoking or drunk driving accidents are to alcohol?

Smoking related disease, obesity related disease, and alcohol related disease and deaths are much more common.

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