Let me guess - because some people are unable to consume this form of entertainment responsibly, we have to make it illegal for everyone?

Makes sense. While we’re at it let’s kick the war on drugs back into high gear, reinstate prohibition, and make other higher risk behavior illegal.

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Georgelemental 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We can go back to how it used to be, when you had to go to a gambling establishment in person

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tt24 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Why would we do that? I’m perfectly capable of using a gambling app responsibly.

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toomanyrichies 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Consider the possibility that your brain chemistry is different from that of other people, and that this could affect the level of responsibility people bring to bear here.

	▲	stickfigure 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, but you can say the same about alcohol, drugs, sweets, red meat, sex, motorcycles, base jumping... pretty quickly we're going to end up in a pretty milktoast world. I met someone recently who filed bankruptcy over tens of thousands of dollars of debt incurred obsessing over baseball cards (!) There is always going to be someone.

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stackskipton 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Because it's harm reduction. Sometimes you can reduce a vice impact by putting in friction. Too much can end with poor results for sure.

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bryanlarsen 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because there is a significant amount of externalized costs we should increase the impedance: taxes, banning/regulating advertising, cooling off periods, limits, et cetera.

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superb_dev 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We don’t have to fully outlaw gambling or other forms of high risk entertainment, but we absolutely should be outlawing the pervasive advertising these companies are doing. You can’t enjoy sports these days without dodging tons of ads for betting platforms

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tt24 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I don’t see why advertisement for gambling is any more offensive than advertisement for any other form of entertainment

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ImJamal 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

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tt24 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Should we ban advertisement for skydiving and other such high risk behavior?

	▲	ImJamal 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I haven't looked much into the Canadian levels, but I assume they are similar to the US. Some stats might not be quite right, but... 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.

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AlexandrB 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd settle for making these apps play fair at least. Being able to effectively ban users who are good at sports betting by limiting their wagers to trivial amounts[1] is a "heads we win, tails you lose" situation and contradicts their marketing claims.

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/sports/opinion-sports-betting-morgan-camp...