| ▲ | oezi 5 hours ago |
| I see absolutely no upside for a society to allow sports betting. The tax revenues don't justify the addiction, debts and devastated families. |
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| ▲ | milkytron 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| An argument I've heard is that by legalizing betting, it can be more easily monitored with regulation and reduce the amount of black market betting. People still bet when it's illegal, it just becomes harder to track, which makes it easier for gamblers to interfere with outcomes without detection. It sounds kind of similar to the legalization of certain recreational drugs. For example, alcohol prohibition resulted in a massive black market with organized criminal gangs, and many places realized it's better to regulate it rather than prohibit it. I think for gambling, we need better regulations, and the Australian government seems to think so too. |
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| ▲ | tokioyoyo 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Almost nobody was betting in the black market before the legalization. Sure you obviously had some people, but friction was big enough where it was not worth it. Right now, there isn’t a single game where people are talking about the bets they made in NA. Nothing should be black and white. Even for alcohol and drug abuse, we should look at each and evaluate. | | |
| ▲ | nradov 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I don't know about Australia but there was an enormous amount of black market sports gambling in the USA before it was widely legalized. People who were unaware of this were just oblivious or led very sheltered lives. Broad legalization may have been a net negative for society but it's a complex issue. | | |
| ▲ | bdangubic 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | define enormous? before it was legalized I knew one mate that was a gambler. I don’t have a friend anymore who does not sports gamble, hardly have relatives that don’t sports gamble. die-hard fans of teams now don’t give a hoot if the team wins (especially in the regular season)… not saying this is not a complicated issue but to say market was enormous is very much removed from reality |
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| ▲ | fblp 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yep it's hard to build a large liquid market for both sides of the bet without a central platform being legal. Look at polymarket as another example of things that people wouldn't bet on if a (legal in some countries) platform didn't exist. |
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| ▲ | mikkupikku 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Very few people gambled illegally. Putting some gangster out of business (Lol if you actually believe that) at the cost of addicting the entire working class to throwing away their money is bad math! | | |
| ▲ | awesome_dude 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Sorry, but what? Illegal gambling has been rife for a very long time - the bookie down the pub taking bets on horses, games, whatever Add to that that the Costigan Commission (1984) and the Fitzgerald Inquiry (1989) proved that illegal gambling was the foundational "river of gold" for organised crime in Australia. | | |
| ▲ | mikkupikku 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Illegal gambling at its peak was nothing compared to every store, restaurant and smartphone being a casino, advertised right out in the open. | | |
| ▲ | awesome_dude 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | True - legalisation increased total gambling. But your original claim was 'very few gambled illegally' which the historical record contradicts. The Costigan and Fitzgerald inquiries showed illegal gambling wasn't just widespread - the profits funded other organised crime including the heroin trade. We can debate whether legalisation was net positive without rewriting that history. | | |
| ▲ | Teever an hour ago | parent [-] | | So how wide spread was it? Like is there a graph of illegal gambling participation by pop over time? I've run in many different circles in my life and I've never really come across any sort of illegal gambling. I know it exists[0], it just honestly doesn't seem very common. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JkkMBpQtU |
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| ▲ | girvo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah these people have no idea what they are talking about, you’re correct. |
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| ▲ | bdangubic 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | my grandma is not going to be looking for a black market bookie. some percentage of people will be no matter what though if you make penalties really severe you will significantly thin out this crowd. without gambling though, pat mahomes would be making less money that I am making… | | |
| ▲ | fineIllregister 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > without gambling though, pat mahomes would be making less money that I am making… It's not like he was broke when it was just beer and crypto ads. He made 10 million dollars his rookie year in the NFL before SCOTUS federally legalized gambling. |
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| ▲ | Blikkentrekker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Many dangerous things are legal simply because “people enjoy doing them” though. People die during parachuting and climbing mount everest. What's the upside really beyond “People enjoy doing it and it's their own life.”? |
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| ▲ | charcircuit 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| It's fun and increases engagement with watching sports, being invested with what happens. As a case study look at the impact sites like CSGOLounge had on the popularity of competitive CSGO. |
