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Comment by Gunax | Hacker News Reader

I happen to enjoy sports gambling and would be sad to see it disappear.

I'm writing this because I want you to know what you're depriving me of. Because _other_ people make poor decisions, we need to take that decision away from everyone.

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I like gambling too, I was very much for legalizing it until it happened and I saw how many lives it's devastated, and how vulnerable young people are to it.

Now I don't give a fuck that banning it would deprive me (or you) of something we happen to enjoy.

Here‘s the article that started me toward changing my mind: https://thezvi.substack.com/p/the-online-sports-gambling-exp...

This is just the same social contract you agree to in every part of your life.

Why can't you legally drive over 100 mph when you know you'd do it safely?

Why can't you own certain kinds of weapons when you know you don't want to kill anyone or yourself?

Gamblers going bankrupt is bad for all of us because they often have families and creditors who are harmed by the loss of the money, and the rest of us pay the price in the form of welfare, loss wages, etc.

I just don't think those are good analogies.

For one, we are just discussing financial ruin. Not deaths by guns or cars. And it does not impact you. Or else you would need to just regulate poor spending habits. At worse.

I think in principle just about everyone agrees in freedom and liberty where it does not affect society. We usually disagree just about what constitutes 'affecting others'.

The entire business model depends on most people losing, and those losses often come from people who can't afford it, the industry is structured to aggressively market, addict, and exploit psychological weaknesses, it's engineered dependence

> Because _other_ people make poor decisions, we need to take that decision away from everyone.

Sports betting is to entertainment what ultra-processed food is to nutrition, engineered to be addictive, marketed as "pleasure" and technically a personal choice, but built on exploiting human psychology

You can enjoy a burger or a bet responsibly, sure, but the problem is the systemic design, it's optimized for overconsumption and dependency, not well being, you end up creating problems whole society have to pay for it, it's systemic harm

If you look at the budget, it becomes obvious that the main activity of the federal government is taking money from one group of citizens so that another group of citizens, who are otherwise capable of working, can enjoy a life of leisure for the last 15-20 years of their life. Given that we’ve collectively decided that the bar for when we will massively impinge on people’s freedom is apparently to provide for other people’s idleness, I think it’s completely justified to also impinge on people’s freedom so that we can prevent problem gamblers from totally ruining their lives.

How would you feel if we just banned advertising it?

Im all for people like you having the right to make a choice, but the way its advertised rubs me the wrong way.

Kids are encouraged to watch the games which is a bit of a family event. Then during those games, ads are just everywhere for betting. Then theres a "18+ only" fine print.

We banned cigarette advertisements during sports and I would say we are better for it, but I wouldn't call to ban smoking.

Also it could do with some regulation banning people who win to much shouldn’t be allowed

Well we could just limit the _amount_ people gamble instead (say $1000 per year).

I have no idea if this is feasible.

What an incredibly selfish attitude.

It’s a completely legitimate question. It’s the same moral consideration behind whether drugs and alcohol should be legal. Banning them is good for people who can’t use them responsibly, but reduces the freedom of people who can. Given that we’ve flip flopped on the legality of alcohol, cannabis, and sports betting in the last 100ish years, it’s clear there is ambiguity about what is the best tradeoff.

Yes. I know it's incredibly selfish to push your laws on my body because you don't have self control.

How do you sleep at night, knowing you're a nosy fascist?

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