Sports gambling was a gateway drug | Hacker News Reader

Sports gambling was a gateway drug

businessinsider.com

27 pointspseudolus15 comments

The analogy implies sports gambling is just to get you started, but it’s as bad as anything. Actually, sport can largely stand on it own as entertainment, so sports gambling is possibly more addictive than other forms.

The more you gamble the more the gambling companies make, so that’s all they really care about. Branching out to other forms of gambling is just a way to scoop up more money.

It’s been a huge societal mistake to make gambling widely legal. A lot of people just don’t have defenses against the addiction so it ruins a lot of lives. Meanwhile, it doesn’t add anything useful to the wider economy, so there’s no offsetting advantages like some other things. It’s just bad.

Gambling addiction is a thing. I have known 2 people who had the bug. My wife knew a third. There is no amount of reasoning with them. They have to see the bottom. It is not as bad as drugs but they will still spend everything they have on it. Then the worst is when they win they put it right back in and dont walk. They are 'going to be even richer now'.

Many people look for short cuts in life. Gambling looks like a way to do it. The amazing thing was these two I knew could have been wildly successful in both of their professions. They spent every dime they had (and a lot of other peoples money) at the dog track before they died. One went into a program and had mild success at stopping. The other not so much. That sort of thing sticks for a couple of generations too. Their kids and grandkids are not doing so good, because granddad hit the trifecta once.

That whole industry will suck you dry and not blink twice. Their whole system is setup to make it look like you can win if you just try hard enough, or get a lucky streak going. Giving you enough crumbs to chase it more. Then if you do manage to get an edge they do not want you around.

Thank God I do not have the bug. But I can understand how you can get there.

Is there any non-religion based effort to combat modern society's (seeming) shift toward excess like drugs and gambling?

The best way to do it is to ban advertising. Banning ads for tobacco has been effective. We don’t need to criminalize vice. Just don’t allow advertising for vice.

While we're at it, ban it for prescription medications, too.

It's tough, though. Right now we see lots of alcohol advertising in the form of "Buy Heineken...0% ;) ;)" and in the case of tobacco we see shell companies like Mission Winnow set up to covertly advertise Marlboro during sporting events. There's also an increasing trend of guerrilla marketing for these brands, like popular posts on social media taking the form "Formula 1 cars never looked so good as they did in the old Marlboro liveries" which attract tonnes of comments like "this post makes me want to smoke."

Dry January seems to be doing some good too. That is a charity independent from any religion afaict. I know multiple people who didn't start drinking again when February arrived. They weren't alcoholics, at least not in the classical sense, or that wouldn't have worked. But it almost certainly benefitted their health.

Your comment seems to suggest that religion can be used to combat excesses. In my experience, the only times when religion works in that way is when itself substitutes the previous excesses. Normally the person becomes someone completely different, seemingly lobotomised, and ends up giving away all their time, energy and many times money to the church or whatever organisation is behind it.

I'd hardly call that combatting excess. YMMV.

I didn't interpret the parent comment as saying that religion can be used to/is effective at combating excess, but that the only existing efforts to combat this kind of excess come from religious groups (i.e. there aren't any secular groups lobbying against gambling). I don't know if that is true and I don't necessarily agree with the comment btw.

Aren't there secular groups lobbying against gambling?

I am afraid that governments lost the moral high ground a long time ago, when they started up lotteries (commonly with worse odds than the old numbers game).

Sorry, I should've been more clear. That was not my meaning.

I meant that every organization I've seen in that space has a religious aspect to it that has always rubbed me the wrong way. There should be non-affiliated options.

I see. Thanks for clarifying. I'm not sure I've seen any either!

How could there be? The current secular moral paradigm’s foundation is “consenting adults.” There’s no basis for opposing adults willingly betting or doing recreational drugs in that paradigm.

All of the major moral paradigms that do provide a foundation for such a ban are religious.

There is the logical financial argument. Statistics, and countless examples, show people who go down either of these roads end up worse off. For those who want a comfortable life, they should be avoided.

For those who already have an uncomfortable life and see a gambling win as a way out, they are falling victim to the lies, and ignoring that a gambling loss will put them in an even worse spot. And with drugs, is a temporary escape that leaves them worse on financially.

I don’t know there is an “effort” going on to this effect, but it’s what I always heard growing up. “The house always wins,” and stuff to that effect.

There are (rare) situations where gambling is logical. It hinges around the obvservation that not all dollars are equal.

It's basically the opposite of insurance, and most people consider insurance to be rational despite the fact that the "house always wins". A small regular payment that you can afford is preferable to an irregular large one that you can't, even if the small regular payments add up to more than the irregular large ones.

The opposite effect can occur. Imagine if you owe the mafia $X but you only have $X/2. They'll break your legs if you don't give them $X. If you gamble and win you can pay off the mafia. If you don't gamble you'll be in basically the same situation as if you gamble and lose. So it's rational to gamble.

The existence of rational reasons to gamble is problematic. It's very easy to convince yourself that you are in one of those situations even if you aren't.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com