Gambling has zero societal upsides. We pretend sometimes it does, but it's always trading a limited benefit for a substantial harm.
Sports Betting was supposed to create jobs, and it did. But for every job created, several other people's finances were ruined. The vast majority of this revenue is going straight to the people at the top, so it doesn't even create all that many jobs.
Likewise, the lottery is one of the most insidious parts of our society. We dangle the carrot of unfathomable wealth in front of people, and let them spill huge amounts of money into a system that is so unlikely to produce a win that one can realistically conclude that it is a 0% chance. We act like it's beneficial because it funds things like scholarships, but those things could just be offered using public funds without destroying countless lives with gambling. In fact, if we just funded those scholarship with public funds, the impact to taxpayers would be substantially less than the impact on gamblers.
Even when someone eventually wins a huge jackpot, there are tons of stories about how those wins ended up hurting, or in some cases even killing, the recipient. The actual reward of winning isn't what people think it is, because most people who gamble enough to have a chance at winning are not prepared at all to handle that windfall appropriately.
The price paid for gambling is always too high, and dangling immense unearned wealth just serves to bait lower-income Americans into flushing their limited income down the drain in hope of a free ride.
Whatever notion people have about individual responsibility doesn't apply here. This form of exploitation is well understood, and it should not be legal to deceive people this way. The vast majority of gamblers don't understand the math behind it, and vastly overestimate their odds.
I've done my share of casual gambling, and personally understand that it can be a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed responsibly. Unfortunately, that is like saying that you've used cocaine a few times without overdosing or getting addicted: you're the exception, not the rule.
Sports Betting was supposed to create jobs, and it did. But for every job created, several other people's finances were ruined. The vast majority of this revenue is going straight to the people at the top, so it doesn't even create all that many jobs.
Likewise, the lottery is one of the most insidious parts of our society. We dangle the carrot of unfathomable wealth in front of people, and let them spill huge amounts of money into a system that is so unlikely to produce a win that one can realistically conclude that it is a 0% chance. We act like it's beneficial because it funds things like scholarships, but those things could just be offered using public funds without destroying countless lives with gambling. In fact, if we just funded those scholarship with public funds, the impact to taxpayers would be substantially less than the impact on gamblers.
Even when someone eventually wins a huge jackpot, there are tons of stories about how those wins ended up hurting, or in some cases even killing, the recipient. The actual reward of winning isn't what people think it is, because most people who gamble enough to have a chance at winning are not prepared at all to handle that windfall appropriately.
The price paid for gambling is always too high, and dangling immense unearned wealth just serves to bait lower-income Americans into flushing their limited income down the drain in hope of a free ride.
Whatever notion people have about individual responsibility doesn't apply here. This form of exploitation is well understood, and it should not be legal to deceive people this way. The vast majority of gamblers don't understand the math behind it, and vastly overestimate their odds.
I've done my share of casual gambling, and personally understand that it can be a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed responsibly. Unfortunately, that is like saying that you've used cocaine a few times without overdosing or getting addicted: you're the exception, not the rule.