4 ms·

We should just make gambling illegal online again, things were fine back when you couldn’t gamble online then, at least in the USA, the fucking supreme corpo gu

by ok_dad 3mo ago

We should just make gambling illegal online again, things were fine back when you couldn’t gamble online then, at least in the USA, the fucking supreme corpo guzzlers (formerly the Supreme Court) interpreted the laws according to their owners will and now we have gambling online.

irishcoffee 3mo ago
Probation was a thing, too. How did that turn out?
- ok_dad 3mo ago
  You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally. Frankly, being able to buy drugs and alcohol online is probably a mistake, too.
  - JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
    > You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally It was almost certainly easier for most people to buy drugs than gamble illegally when both were illegal.
    - jmcgough 3mo ago
      Most states had lotteries before this though. At least those brought in tax money and were designed to be relatively fair. Online gambling can shut down your account and refuse to pay if you get too big of a payout, and their money isn't going towards public schools.
- nemomarx 3mo ago
  There wasn't some mass movement of people doing online gambling that led to the dam bursting and it getting legalized, though. Courts just made a different decision and opened it up one day and as far as I know there wasn't even mass lobbying about it?
  - lotsofpulp 3mo ago
    There was mass lobbying, specificially by the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey, via their elected representatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_v._National_Collegiate_Athletic_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_v._National_Collegiate_... Note that it was not a close decision: > Opinion of the Court >The Court announced a 7–2 judgment in favor of Murphy on May 14, 2018, reversing the Third Circuit.[25] Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch and in part by Justice Stephen Breyer.[26][27][28] The majority opinion agreed that §§ 3701(1) of PASPA commandeered power from the states to regulate their own gambling industries and thus was unconstitutional. It followed New York v. United States and reversed the Third Circuit decision.
  - jmcgough 3mo ago
    fanduel and draftkings poured massive amount of money into advertising, pumping their numbers to make it seem like gambling was too big to stop.
- geoduck14 3mo ago
  Prohibition was incredibly successful at reducing the amount of alcohol people drank
  - _carbyau_ 3mo ago
    And increasing tunneling skills! And increasing car racing! (Though I still don't get oval racing.) Prohibition had some unintended consequences.
- DonHopkins 3mo ago
  You'll have to ask your probation officer.
ipython 3mo ago
Exactly. Gambling in the real world involved friction. That plus a certain social stigma if you gambled outside of “mainstream” casinos. And this helped weed out all but the most addicted gamblers. Now there is no friction, the platforms are free to create dark patterns to encourage problem gambling, and the vice has zero social cost.
- duskwuff 3mo ago
  The dark patterns aren't just in online gambling. Nowdays, a lot of brick-and-mortar casinos encourage, or even require, clients to create an account (often framed as a "members club" or "rewards card"), which is used to track the client's activity at the casino and target them with promotions tailored to their behavior. These can be used in some really troubling ways, e.g. by identifying clients who may have a gambling problem and targeting them with promotions to come back to the casino more often, to stay longer, and/or to start placing larger bets.
  - Saline9515 3mo ago
    The worst dark pattern I saw for gambling was in Lithuania: in supermarkets, they sell scratch cards right next to the credit card terminal. If you are a recovering addict, you just can't avoid the trigger, at the worst moment.
dang 3mo ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly, and we've had to ask you many times not to. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. (p.s. Just to pre-empt the usual: no, this is not a defense of Big Gambling, just an attempted defense of HN thread quality.)
- Drupon 3mo ago
  This comment was unnecessary and very distracting from a far more interesting discussion in the replies to the commenter you are attempting to condescend.
  - root_axis 3mo ago
    There is no censorship happening here - the comment remains visible, he simply asked them to refrain from the inflammatory language.
    - toasty228 3mo ago
      > There is no censorship happening here Wait until your account is shadow banned and you post in the void for weeks/months before noticing
  - burnished 3mo ago
    dang is the moderator
    - Drupon 3mo ago
      I'm aware and was expressing my disappointment in that kind of flaming comment coming from someone who's supposed to be the adult in the room.
- p1necone 3mo ago
lokar 3mo ago
The court ruling was a good one, and anticipated. The federal government can either allow all gambling, or ban it all. They can’t pick and choose states where it may be allowed.
- throwaway2037 3mo ago
  Before online gambling went wild in the US, most brick and mortal gambling was one of three sources: (1) Nevada (Las Vegas, etc.), (2) Atlantic City, New Jersey, (3) Native American tribes. There were also some other odd locations, like river boat gambling on the Mississippi River or "cardrooms" in California. As a result, most Americans did not live close to a casino. Now, you can do it from your smartphone.
  - lokar 3mo ago
    And federal law said states other than Nevada and New Jersey had to ban gambling. The court said they can’t do that. They could ban gambling nationwide in federal law.
morkalork 3mo ago
Exactly. The corruption and rot is beyond the pale.

by ok_dad 3mo ago

irishcoffee 3mo ago

Probation was a thing, too. How did that turn out?

ok_dad 3mo ago
You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally. Frankly, being able to buy drugs and alcohol online is probably a mistake, too.
- JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
  > You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally It was almost certainly easier for most people to buy drugs than gamble illegally when both were illegal.
  - jmcgough 3mo ago
    Most states had lotteries before this though. At least those brought in tax money and were designed to be relatively fair. Online gambling can shut down your account and refuse to pay if you get too big of a payout, and their money isn't going towards public schools.
nemomarx 3mo ago
There wasn't some mass movement of people doing online gambling that led to the dam bursting and it getting legalized, though. Courts just made a different decision and opened it up one day and as far as I know there wasn't even mass lobbying about it?
- lotsofpulp 3mo ago
  There was mass lobbying, specificially by the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey, via their elected representatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_v._National_Collegiate_Athletic_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_v._National_Collegiate_... Note that it was not a close decision: > Opinion of the Court >The Court announced a 7–2 judgment in favor of Murphy on May 14, 2018, reversing the Third Circuit.[25] Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch and in part by Justice Stephen Breyer.[26][27][28] The majority opinion agreed that §§ 3701(1) of PASPA commandeered power from the states to regulate their own gambling industries and thus was unconstitutional. It followed New York v. United States and reversed the Third Circuit decision.
- jmcgough 3mo ago
  fanduel and draftkings poured massive amount of money into advertising, pumping their numbers to make it seem like gambling was too big to stop.
geoduck14 3mo ago
Prohibition was incredibly successful at reducing the amount of alcohol people drank
- _carbyau_ 3mo ago
  And increasing tunneling skills! And increasing car racing! (Though I still don't get oval racing.) Prohibition had some unintended consequences.
DonHopkins 3mo ago
You'll have to ask your probation officer.

ipython 3mo ago

Exactly. Gambling in the real world involved friction. That plus a certain social stigma if you gambled outside of “mainstream” casinos. And this helped weed out all but the most addicted gamblers. Now there is no friction, the platforms are free to create dark patterns to encourage problem gambling, and the vice has zero social cost.

duskwuff 3mo ago
The dark patterns aren't just in online gambling. Nowdays, a lot of brick-and-mortar casinos encourage, or even require, clients to create an account (often framed as a "members club" or "rewards card"), which is used to track the client's activity at the casino and target them with promotions tailored to their behavior. These can be used in some really troubling ways, e.g. by identifying clients who may have a gambling problem and targeting them with promotions to come back to the casino more often, to stay longer, and/or to start placing larger bets.
- Saline9515 3mo ago
  The worst dark pattern I saw for gambling was in Lithuania: in supermarkets, they sell scratch cards right next to the credit card terminal. If you are a recovering addict, you just can't avoid the trigger, at the worst moment.

dang 3mo ago

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly, and we've had to ask you many times not to. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. (p.s. Just to pre-empt the usual: no, this is not a defense of Big Gambling, just an attempted defense of HN thread quality.)

Drupon 3mo ago
This comment was unnecessary and very distracting from a far more interesting discussion in the replies to the commenter you are attempting to condescend.
- root_axis 3mo ago
  There is no censorship happening here - the comment remains visible, he simply asked them to refrain from the inflammatory language.
  - toasty228 3mo ago
    > There is no censorship happening here Wait until your account is shadow banned and you post in the void for weeks/months before noticing
- burnished 3mo ago
  dang is the moderator
  - Drupon 3mo ago
    I'm aware and was expressing my disappointment in that kind of flaming comment coming from someone who's supposed to be the adult in the room.
p1necone 3mo ago

lokar 3mo ago

The court ruling was a good one, and anticipated. The federal government can either allow all gambling, or ban it all. They can’t pick and choose states where it may be allowed.

throwaway2037 3mo ago
Before online gambling went wild in the US, most brick and mortal gambling was one of three sources: (1) Nevada (Las Vegas, etc.), (2) Atlantic City, New Jersey, (3) Native American tribes. There were also some other odd locations, like river boat gambling on the Mississippi River or "cardrooms" in California. As a result, most Americans did not live close to a casino. Now, you can do it from your smartphone.
- lokar 3mo ago
  And federal law said states other than Nevada and New Jersey had to ban gambling. The court said they can’t do that. They could ban gambling nationwide in federal law.

morkalork 3mo ago

Exactly. The corruption and rot is beyond the pale.