I think it’s worth reflecting on the baseline paradigm of our political system. Which is: we are perfectly fine taxing one group of people (the working non-retired) at very substantial levels so that a different group of people (the retired) can not work for 20 years at the end of their lives. Given that our backdrop is such an incredible impingement of the liberty of some for the benefit of others, I think it’s completely reasonable to likewise impinge on the freedom of people who can gamble responsibly to save people who are prone to gambling addiction from destroying their lives.

The industry can't survive on people who see it as harmless fun, that's the problem.

So is Russian roulette 83% of the time.

Profit comes from addicts, not casual players. Gambling is a parasitic practice that harms communitites[1]. The bookmakers all know this, but obviously pretend otherwise.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/25/life...

I'm in a country where pot is illegal, but I get my prescriptions just fine. Damn the state for recognising there may be a problem with pot, but it's OK, really.

is it the substance that's addictive or is it the relief and respite it provides from this capitalist hellscape we're all drowning in?

I'd like to see the UCLA study which showed that in states that legalized marijuana, bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies increased about 25%.

Admittedly, I didn't read the whole article but I didn't see anything about banning social media and/or putting pot stores on every corner to compete with the liquor/tobacco stores. Seems like something they would have put in the beginning to draw the reader in, dunno?

What I do know from living on this planet for over half a century is that gambling and alcohol and certain drugs are very addictive and have the tendency of ruining people's lives. Pretty much common knowledge at this point, one would have thought...

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