Local officials see taxes on gambling as lucrative new revenue streams, but that ignores the real cost, opponents say
The ability to tax such new revenue streams is enticing for state and city officials dealing with post-pandemic economic upheaval, said Richard C. Auxier, principle policy associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a think tank.
I imagine legalized gambling in a healthy society is a non consequential pastime. In a country like the US, it’s considered a pension alongside Mr. Beast healthcare
I think one of the most glaring failures of the "if you don't like (thing) don't do (thing), simple" thought terminating cliches is gambling and the harm it does to people and everyone around those people.
I think it's consumerism, or "treat brain" as I call it locally. The old nazi death camp slogan "to each his/their own" is another version of that thought terminating cliche.
The insistence that people aren't connected, or that intersectional interactions don't happen somewhere between a treat's cultivation, manufacture, distribution, sale, and/or consumption has lead to a lot of easy cultural and ideological victories for capitalism lately. People can feel insulated and safe from feeling bad about their entertainment if they can contend that everything they spend money on is an enlightened informed democratic gesture that has no consequences outside of themselves.
Gambling is just the most glaring example. I have family members that pulled everyone around them into ruin over their addiction to it. But To Each Their Own(tm)!
Yep same with smoking cigarettes tbh. How many kids have to grow up with increased rates of cancer because their parents smoke in the house and cars and around them?
Millions. Millions of children with cancer and deformities for a drug that fucking sucks and doesn’t even do anything cool
Of all the treat defenders I've had to argue with over time, few are worse than the smoking apologists.
Offline, in person, being told that I can't "objectively prove" that any particular cigarette will cause lung cancer to a clearly addicted but in denial smoking enjoyer was always frustrating.
One such person that I knew for decades died of lung cancer. In his mid-late thirties. And months before that, his doctor told him he had the overall vitals of a eighty year old man and to please stop smoking. He laughed it off, right in front of me... with a horridly rattly cough.
wait...you mean an entire population prone to addiction is having a hard time with the ability to try to gamble their way out of poverty via a 24/7 bookie on their phones?
Seriously, if gambling is going to be legal, you should at least have to go to an actual bookie.
Tried to watch ESPN for the first time in years and it was just them going over their bets which meant they covered a random hockey game they had a bet on, then a random college basketball game, then a baseball game without even mentioning what the series score was. (This is an example idr what the specific examples were so don't @ me if some of those shirts don't happen at the same time)
Plus it completely changes their coverage, instead of talking about like if ones team pitching will be enough to shut down a hot batting line up, now it's about I'd one specific player will be able to get a double between the 4th and 6th inning for a prop bet.
Also I've noticed it really butchers the graphics display, before you just got the team and scores, now it's who has the over or under and all this other bullshit. They mention it on the broadcast, they have to advertise these services on air as well, calling it cancerous is 100% accurate
I always thought the idea of fantasy sports was silly to me but it was relatively harmless cause it was more about bragging rights and knowhow, now ofc money is involved
My friends are absurdly addicted to this. Last year during March Madness I was registering on one app to make like 2 or 3 small bets and a couple of them nearly came to blows to give me their referral code.
This is so fucking stupid. The state literally can create currency at will through the central bank, it absolutely doesn't need dollars from betting taxes.
Nationalize the twitch prop bet mechanisms. Channel points become equivalent to cigarettes or ramen in the massive prison that is America. Getting stabbed with a toothbrush shiv for my northernlion point reserve