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Comment by VirusNewbie | Hacker News Reader

Are there safe ways to regulate gambling? If we capped everyone's yearly gambling budget to some % of tax they paid, (with some floor), does that solve anything?

I'm honestly curious if it's better to have some outlet for people who love gambling, and just have some cap, vs trying to ban it altogether.

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The UK has been trying forms of regulation for a while, including deposit limits - if you try and deposit more than about £150 a month into an account, the bookmaker may ask for proof you can afford it (payslips, bank statements, things most people don’t want to hand over).

In general, it’s been a disaster: it’s just moved betting to (illegal), offshore bookmakers. It’s pretty easy to get on via WhatsApp if you need to, these days.

I’d suggest most territories should be OK with sports bets on singles, not parlays, and block online casinos and slots. That latter category is very problematic for addicts. I get why it’s problematic for fans watching the game, which is why UK leagues have started to push it out a bit (no shirt front sponsors in EPL for example). I’d definitely push more down that route.

I’d also legally force platforms to move away from RFQs and parlays because they create an unfair asymmetry that harms the backer and creates huge profits to the layers (bookmakers, or market makers on prediction markets).

Disclosure: I write software that trades on exchanges in the UK. I have skin in the game, the above is based on what I track over here.

I know you’re probably looking for a serious response, which I don’t have, but my half serious one is: this is why I spend $100 at Round One or Dave & Busters about twice a year. Between coin pushers, crane games, and ticket games, it scratches that gambling itch for me without turning into a full-blown addiction.

Right, it's helpful to know anecdotes. I like playing poker here and there but i've never been much of a sports better.

Restricting it to physical premises and non-digital (aka betting shops pre Internet) would solve most of the issue.

There were plenty of gambling addicts who lost everything through old-school betting shops back in the day too.

My view is that there should be limits imposed on how much people can lose across all forms of gambling annually, with a high-friction process if you want to raise your limit above say, $5,000 per year.

Wouldn't that incentivize betting on unregulated and untaxed markets?

Incentivize who? The consumer?

it's a good question, that's why I was wondering if some legalization would scratch enough of an itch that the unregulated and untaxed markets would remain small.

> Are there safe ways to regulate gambling?

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