Watching a TV show or a movie that you saw a commercial for isn't going to bankrupt you and cause you to lose your house.
Something like .15% of the US population skydive a year. Almost none of them die.
I've seen estimates that over 5% of the US population gamble at a "problem" level and about 0.5% to 1% are outright addicted. About 20% of those addicted have a suicide attempt.
Americans who skydive in the US will be about the same number of Americans who attempt suicide due to gambling issues. Skydiving is quite safe so the death rate is so minimal.
The scale between the two is just so different.
Gambling apps get a large share of their revenue from the small group of users who can't stop. Meanwhile they cap the bets of people who win too much, so arguing that "betting is just entertainment in a free market" is false on its face. These are predatory companies and they should absolutely be regulated as such.
Skydiving is absolutely addictive. Adrenaline chasing is addictive behavior
> the risk falls on the participant
Same with gambling
> a skydiving company doesn't make more money from the customers it hurts
Yes they do.
It's shocking how you managed to construct the most flatly incorrect string of words ever
Gambling disorder is a recognized diagnosis in both the DSM-5 [1] and the WHO's ICD-11 [2], with a $14 billion annual social cost [3] in the US alone. Show me the equivalent DSM entry and social cost for "skydiving addiction".
The word "addiction" has an actual clinical meaning. It's not just vibes. The person has lost control over the behavior, and they keep doing it despite harm. There's no "Skydivers Anonymous".
With gambling, spouses and kids lose savings, debts don't get paid, and the public bears the cost of the ER visits in the headline. Gambling externalizes the costs in a way that skydiving doesn't. That’s the difference.
> Yes they do.
An injured skydiver is a net loss for a skydiving company: insurance, lawsuits, lost business, bad press. You gave no evidence for how they'd profit. You just said "Yes they do". Cue Hitchens's Razor: what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
1. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gambling-disord...
2. https://icd.who.int/browse/2025-01/mms/en#1041487064
3. https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/faqs-what-is-prob...