Hacker News Reader

Comment by calebm | Hacker News Reader

Exactly what I came to say. I'm not a gambler, but the idea of making gambling illegal seems insane to me in "the land of the free".

View on HN

Spend some more time around casinos. Watch your opinion change as you realize what depressing things it says about our society that we let people weep on the pavement because they've lost their house on a literal crapshoot.

Spending a good bit of my formative years in Biloxi seriously changed my attitude around all of this.

It's good to hear that from someone else.

The degree to which the casino industry in Biloxi is celebrated as a heroic engine of economic development and generosity depresses me. The Coast was no utopia before the casinos. And sure, yeah, the casinos employ a bunch of people and some tax money goes to local schools.

But seeing people - often poor people - gamble away their lives, seeing how much prostitution came into play, seeing how many hard drugs come in through them...I don't think the price was worth it.

But all you'll see in the local paper, and hear from most locals, is laudatory: casinos are the savior. We need more of them!

Think about the tax revenue!

Lol...

> what depressing things it says about our society that we let people weep on the pavement because they've lost their house on a literal crapshoot.

The freedom allowing people to make those types of decisions trumps that argument.

Where would you draw the line and determine what we should "let" people do with their own possessions?

So you would not let a person gamble their house on a crap shoot? How about their car? Their watch? $5?

I think we could make a distinction between allowing people to make those types of decisions and actively enabling and encouraging those types of decisions.

If you want to gamble your house away in a private bet, go for it, but the local government shouldn't move heaven and earth to get a casino built to enable thousands and thousands of people to make those decisions in the name of tax revenue.

Similarly, I don't think you would be taking away people's freedom in any meaningful way if, say, you limited lottery transactions to say, $20.

I think you're tilting at windmills here. The type of people who think gambling should be legal and is entirely a personal decision are the type that would agree with you.

Only take it a step further. The state shouldn't move heaven and earth to get anything privately owned built. That it's a casino only makes something inherently bad even worse.

As a Christian, I disagree with the lifestyles many lead, and I have seen those lifestyles lead to much suffering. But just because I think I know better doesn't mean I want to push my views on them. God gave us free will; I advocate free will. Timshel.

I've spent a lot of time around casinos, and I've never seen any legitimate reason to restrict gambling. The government certainly has a role in making sure the games are as advertised, but you can't have liberty without allowing people to screw up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com