Should gambling be legal or illegal?

[grayson]

If you live in some parts of the USA, including Utah, you will know that gambling is illegal. Now suddenly you visit another state, and you find the lottery everywhere. Now one thing I have noticed is that arcade machines are everywhere. I have even seen ones with money. So, If there is an arcade machine with money in it, wouldn't that make it gambling? and in my opinion, claw machines are worse than gambling. Even if you do win, you got nothing of value. What is your opinion on this.

[TheVat]

I have seen gambling addiction work destructively on people's lives, and their families, on a par with heroin, meth,or oxycontin.  And in a way, casinos are worse because they are built entirely on lies and false promises.  They prey upon human stupidity and lack of math skills.  And it may help that our cultural norms equate gambling with daring and clever risk-taking.  Entrepreneurs are sometimes applauded for taking big gambles (often with other people's money).  

And there is always a human urge to make easy money.  Paul Newman, in The Color of Money  says "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."  If it's easier to gain, then most of us figure it's easier to spend.  So won money feels like a vacation from responsibility.  

[OldChemE]

I don't seethe point of making gambling illegal.  There is a certain human pleasure in making projections of outcomes and testing them (Why?  I don't know-- maybe its something from our evolutionary history).  I have known a number of people who gamble in small groups of friends for tiny amounts of money just for the pleasure of it.  There used to be a small cafe near Oakdale, CA that I visited where the locals kept their jars of coins stored on the back of the counter for their weekly poker gathering.  This sort of gambling is social as well as challenging.  As a young man working for the US Forest Service we had our saturday night poker game:  You could only buy $20 worth of chips (25 cents each) and the maximum raise was $1.  We would play all night for less money than a trip to town.  In gambling, just as in drinking or using recreational drugs, the issue is excess, not the act itself.

[npts2020]

On 8/19/2023 at 8:18 PM, TheVat said:

And in a way, casinos are worse because they are built entirely on lies and false promises.

Define "worse", please. Most casino games have better odds than any state lottery.

[mistermack]

On 8/20/2023 at 2:23 AM, OldChemE said:

In gambling, just as in drinking or using recreational drugs, the issue is excess, not the act itself.

But you have to accept that human nature includes excess. Some people can take a little heroin or cocaine now and then, with no problems. Others are hooked on the very first try. It's just a rush for some, but misery and death for others. Just because some don't get hooked doesn't make it the victim's fault. They can't fight what others have no problem with.

Gambling is just like that. It's heroin and cocaine form some, and a harmless flutter for others. I would say ban it, if that was practical, but that would be an absolute gift for organised crime. So controlling it is my reluctant position. 

12 minutes ago, npts2020 said:

Define "worse", please. Most casino games have better odds than any state lottery.

Maybe they do. But a lottery ticket is often a one-off. It's hard to go again and again and again. Whereas casino games get repeated over and over and over in a short time. 

If they odds are better to start with, by the time you have repeated the process over and over, you're certainty of losing grows. ( I'm guessing there, I'm not a mathematician) But anyway, state lotteries are nowhere near as addictive, most people can just have a little flutter now and then without getting hooked on it. 

Most people buy a lottery ticket and expect to lose. Gamblers who go to a casino think they can win. And that's the addiction hook. 

[npts2020]

8 minutes ago, mistermack said:

Maybe they do. But a lottery ticket is often a one-off. It's hard to go again and again and again. Whereas casino games get repeated over and over and over in a short time. 

If they odds are better to start with, by the time you have repeated the process over and over, you're certainty of losing grows. ( I'm guessing there, I'm not a mathematician) But anyway, state lotteries are nowhere near as addictive, most people can just have a little flutter now and then without getting hooked on it. 

Most people buy a lottery ticket and expect to lose. Gamblers who go to a casino think they can win. And that's the addiction hook. 

I would like to see some data on this. It seems to me lottery sales, being ubiquitous in many (if not most) places and cheaper than casino games, present a greater opportunity and if you have a gambling addiction, it probably only matters what preference (if any) you have for giving your money away.

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, npts2020 said:

Define "worse", please. Most casino games have better odds than any state lottery.

I think the previous sentence to the one you quoted made clear I wasn't comparing casino gambling to other forms of wagering.  I was, somewhat whimsically, saying that drugs do deliver on at least some of their promise of making you feel better (hideous as the cost can be).  Sorry if my tone, or comparison, was unclear.