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JWeinCom on 08 April 2021
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Machiavellian said:
JWeinCom said:

So... NY State now allows online betting on sports and pretty much everything else, and I have really mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, I think that people generally should be free to do what they wish so long as it is not impacting another person. On the other hand, there are some instances where something is harmful enough (i.e. heroin) that the government should step in and if not ban then regulate.

Gambling may be one of those things. We know pretty well from studies how effective random reward schedules are, which is why they are used so often. I don't think gambling should be outright banned, but erecting a few barriers to at least give gamblers a chance to pause and think on it doesn't seem unreasonable.

You can argue that since other states will allow gambling, it is pointless for NY to try not to, and you might as well get part of the revenue from NY gamblers, but ignoring federalism concerns, do people think that gambling is something the government should regulate?

Naw, we already have plenty of ways to gamble.  Its really no different from anything done in excess.  The people that go overboard with it usually find something else to destroy their lives.  Basically any particular thing people find either addictive or entertaining can be abused, at some point the government cannot be everyone nanny for everything, but they can give people assistance when they fall.

I don't really buy that argument, because if you make it, then it can probably be used to legitimize deregulation of any market. Guns, alcohol, drugs, etc.

Sure there are SOME people who would gamble no matter what. But if they literally don't have to leave the house to do it, more people are going to vs if they had to actually go to a casino. Obviously, the reason that there is a push to legalize online gambling is because they anticipate way more people will gamble if they do so.

Government can't regulate everything, but certain things raise enough problems that they do, i.e. hard drugs. Unless you're a true libertarian, there are bound to be some things that should be limited. I feel gambling ought to be one of them.

As for providing them help after the fact, that begs the question. If the people running the online betting are paying for that, then that's one thing. The argument is that the tax revenue will support things like education and such which will benefit all of us in the long run. But, intuitively I feel that the amount of money that society has to pay out to help gambling addicts and others affected (i.e. children who need support that their parents can't provide) will be greater than the amount we get out of it. And we know that the people most likely to struggle with gambling are those least able to afford it http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2014/01/001.html. So the end result is funneling money upwards.