The fact that I can get stuck behind someone at the pharmacy checkout who is buying lotto tickets boggles my mind every time. Personally I think we need to go way further than this, but it's a start.

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red-iron-pine 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

people tolerate the lottery because 1) it's run by the state, 2) the money goes into a tax fund that is used to fund improvements on the state level, 3) advertising is limited, and 4) it's limited to fairly straightforward scratchers or lotto-ball picks.

yeah there are always lines of rubes on friday gettin their scratchers, but there is little directly evil dopamine manipulation you'd see on apps

	▲	asdff 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		People tolerate it because it's been around long enough to be normalized. Really though people should not tolerate it. Say what you will about the benefits but it is a regressive tax that preys upon people with a poor understanding of numbers and finance, I'm not sure how you can take a moral position that it is good. Historically it is even racist; these were made really to squash local numbers game rackets that were often found in minority communities. They essentially had a baked in market they captured using regulation to create a state owned monopoly over it. Same people you see buying lotto scratchers today would have been playing the numbers game a few generations ago.

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Ensorceled 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've walked out of the store and left my stuff on the counter when I realized the person ahead of me had about 50 tickets to scan. Multiple times. I'm not waiting for 10+ minutes for them to scan all their tickets and then buy $100 more tickets.

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BizarroLand 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I've seen some places (US) that have scanners separate from the checkout. That way the lotto nuts can scan without holding up the line.

	▲	Ensorceled 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		A lot of them don't use those scanners ... they get the clerk to scan all their tickets instead.

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sellmesoap 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It long past time we think hard about what is good for us at the pharmacy, sure there are a handful of life saving drugs, but then the other 95% of the store is pink tax and carcinogens.

	▲	SoftTalker an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Are you suggesting that pharmacies should only fill prescriptions and not sell any OTC medications, cosmetics, or other convenience products?
	▲	loeg 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		"Pink tax" isn't real.