alt Hacker NewsDo you know of any studies that can accurately show the correlation between gambling and societal costs? On the surface the link makes sense to me and seems like it should be right, though I'm not sure how we could have tested it in a controlled way to really know the link exists.
Replies
snapcaster • today at 1:30 PM
This is such a weird question, just go outside and interact with humans and the evidence is everywhere
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trollbridge • today at 2:41 PM
One study showed a significant increase in domestic violence after gamblers lost sports bets (based on the team for a specific city losing or winning and then comparing DV rates to cities before and after legal online sports betting).
I believe it increased it about 10%.
nilamo • today at 2:00 PM
Do you know of any studies which show any evidence at all that gambling has no costs?
There are a bunch of studies out there [0][1] (two I found immediately) showing the risks around problem gambling, but like with most vices people who’ve already picked the pro side tend to react in the same predictable ways (myself included):
1) Dismissal: Feigning or having a profound misunderstanding of how statistics work by poking at the methodology like “N=200? That’s meaningless.”
2) Apathy: “So what if some people get addicted? We can’t babysit everyone.”
3) Rationalization: “Yeah but it helps Native American reservations, so...”
4) Downplaying: "Ok problem gambling is bad, but how prevalent is problem gambling really?"
0: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-05439-001
1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32402593/