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Comment by gottorf | Hacker News Reader

One thing that struck me in my visit to Australia was the prevalence of gambling machines in casual locations, like corner stores and coffee shops. I used to be a lot more libertarian about things like gambling and personal drug consumption, but now I grapple more deeply with the idea of behaviors that people need saving from themselves.

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I don’t think saving people from themselves is a good way to frame the problem. To me, it’s more a question of whether we’re going to allow businesses and even the government itself to prey on vulnerable people.

Agreed. That framing is what changed my opinion on it over the years. It's easier as a discussion about what we should allow people to make money doing in our society.

"Freedom of choice" is a distraction from whether we should allow someone to get rich selling the means of addiction and destruction to vulnerable people.

I think that's a great way to think about it.

You can extend it further and say that the reason this is bad is because you're giving the kind of people who have no qualms with preying on strangers like that the resources to prey on bigger prey.

We don't want those kinds of people to have the kinds of resources to match their unseemly ambitions.

What changed my mind was that people are up against a department of PhDs who are actively attempting to use psychological research to subvert responsible behavior.

That's reprehensible. And it needs to be controlled by laws.

In the US sports gambling is creating utter chaos in young adults. What a ridiculous thing that we allowed such ads everywhere now.

Where were you in Australia? And what sort of gambling machines are we talking about?

> The laws regulating the use of gaming machines in Australia are a matter for state governments, and as such they vary between states. Gaming machines are found in casinos (approximately one in each major city) as well as pubs and clubs in some states (usually sports, social, or RSL clubs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machines_by_country#Austr...

I was in Sydney. I may be misremembering the exact kind of establishments I found them in -- this was quite a few years ago.

It would have been a pub or a bar.

I've never seen or heard of a pokie machine in a cafe anywhere in Australia.

I live in Sydney and "pokies" are everywhere. RSL clubs are now basically community casinos that have a small restaurant and bar attached. It's sad that community social clubs have transformed into extractive businesses.

Same throughout Berlin and North-Rhine Wesphalia here in Germany. Not sure about the other states.

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