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sooheontoday at 3:48 AM4 repliesview on HN

Nobody is forcing anyone to place bets they can't back, isn't this a personal responsibility issue?

edit: to be clear, if companies are committing fraud in their marketing, that should be prosecuted or if regulations around misleading marketing are weak, that should be legislated of course.


Replies

fl4reguntoday at 5:01 AM

Personal responsibility is an excuse for lazy regulation. These things are designed to be harmful, for the express purpose of squeezing money out of people, as efficiently as possible. We know that some people are psychologically and genetically more prone to addiction than others, and that people like that will be extremely likely to form addictions with gambling or drugs when we make those things easy to access.

What would you rather have? More regulated gambling and less addicts, or unregulated gambling and more addicts? Personally, I prefer the former.

handoflixuetoday at 4:08 AM

> Nobody is forcing anyone to place bets they can't back, isn't this a personal responsibility issue?

Honestly, calling it "personal responsibility" when a powerful group is actively working to exploit that flaw seems a little weird. But even accepting that, we outlaw plenty of things because we think society isn't currently responsible enough to handle them.

aucisson_masquetoday at 6:14 AM

You are promoting gambling to young people, easily manipulated.

That's why you see so many college boy on their marketing video.

It's completely fine when you're old enough to be responsible, and to know that gambling is a degenerate behavior that you can allow yourself sometimes to release the steam, but these companies don't make money from us.

They make money from the kids overspending because they are convinced they are going to get rich doing that. That's manipulation.

It would be like showing McDonald ads to starving African kids, of course they are going to make the wrong choice when offered food. They can't think rationally in that state.

watwuttoday at 6:38 AM

Personal responsibility: a way to avoid talking about responsibility and behavior of large rich actors.

Yes online gambling and sports management actions are their personal responsibility. And we should blame them for harm they knowingly cause.