[Discussion] Should Gambling be Banned?

[Coin_trader]

I read an interesting debate about this topic during the time when I experienced heavy loss in online gambling. I’m trying to seek some reason online to justify my loss and give me acceptance for my loss that time. It didn’t help me but make me confused.    Anyway I will share the points of both side because it is the real life scenario.

PS: I’m in favor for not banning gambling. @Livecasino 

PRO

AS GOOD AS ANYTHING

As the popular adage goes, time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Say what you want about gambling, but you cannot deny that it is fun. Heck, even if you do try to deny it, the science will just prove you wrong. We now know that gambling triggers the release of dopamine in our brains which, by definition, is linked to pleasure. All humans like the thrill of a possible reward. Gambling, by its very nature, provides that for us. As long as you go into it treating it like any other leisure activity – where you may actually have to pay up – it’s fine.

FREEDOM

We’re all adults, aren’t we? Do we really need a nanny state to regulate our behaviour? At the end of the day, it should come down to personal responsibility. If you want to go ahead and gamble, you should have the freedom to do so. It’s never a good idea to grant governments the right to legislate morality. We’ve already seen the disastrous results that led to in regards to sexuality and drinking. Of course, like anything, there is always the risk of gambling being abused by individuals. That’s the risk you find with any recreational activity. However, it’d be foolish to create laws based on the extremes.

IT’S USEFUL

Money, money, money. That’s what gambling is all about at the end of the day, is it not? What better way for the state to collect tax revenue than by tapping into such a lucrative sector. In 2015, the money brought in by gambling in Europe was 94.2 billion euros. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly 2/3rd of the EU’s annual budget. You’d have to be an idiot not to exploit that goldmine.

CONS

AS BAD AS IT GETS

Religions across the world have been warning us of the dangers of gambling for centuries. “You cannot serve both God and money,” sayeth the Bible. The Talmud condemns gambling as a sin. The Quran lists it as haram. Certain sects of Hinduism specifically forbid it. Would it not be prudent to heed the common wisdom of these great faiths?

Even if you’re non-religious, you’ve surely heard horror stories wrought upon families by gambling. Be it fathers or mothers abandoning their parental responsibilities, losing life savings or destroying their home lives, it’s not a pretty sight. Gambling can be seriously detrimental to your social well-being.

ADDICTION

Of course, you’re free to do as you wish, but how free are you really once you fall into the dark grip of addiction?  Problem gambling is a well-known psychiatric issue. Gambling triggers the reward centre of the brain. For certain individuals, this pleasant sensation creates a compulsive disorder. In Europe, pathological gambling rates vary between 2% and 6.5% in the adult population. That’s not a negligible number.

IT’S RIGGED

The house always wins. Of course it does: why else would anyone want to open up a casino? The capitalist system is based around return on investments. Casino owners and gambling websites know this all too well and, of course, they specifically create business models to ensure profitability. You could well be one of the very lucky few to benefit from this system, but you’re far more likely to be the stupid schmuck that loses everything. May the very low odds be ever in your favour…

Conclusion: I got confused because the first time I read this was I’m feeling down that time while my perspective is against gambling but when I read it again when my mind is clear, I realized that the pro side has a valid point too. At that point I noticed that our opinion will varies based on our actual condition because it’s easy to say that it’s just a game if you are not playing and just sitting in the side line but if you are the one who’s experiencing the actual heavy loss, Maybe you will be in favor to the cons side.  


Source: https://www.debatingeurope.eu/focus/arguments-for-and-against-banning-gambling/#.YtD9rS8RX4A

[Oshosondy]

Gambling can mean freedom, it can be useful and it can be as good as anything, but also can it be as bad as anything and can be a prison for some people which are addicts.

Getting the government revenue is not part of the pros for anyone, it is just part of the pros for the government. If you lose, will the government pay you anything or money? No. The government do not care much as long as they are collecting taxes from gambling industry. It is you that will care for yourself and not the government. So in respect to yourself, financial life, marital life and being a good dad or mum, gambling is not a pro or of any advantage for you but for the government.

Gambling is fun if treated appropriately by not gambling with what you can not afford to lose, by not gambling with the amount of money that can have you depression or resulting to financial or family problem. Just little amount of money to gambling is enough, we should not see gambling as a profession but as high risk.

About online gambling to be banned, I will say no, just that gambling ads should not be allowed at anywhere children are accessing, be it online or offline.

[P2PECS]

No for two reasons, firstly because I don't want to be restricted in my freedom to gamble if I want to and secondly because banning does not mean putting an end to gambling, it means moving it to the underworld where it is more dangerous for gamblers.

The best thing to do with gambling is to make it legal, well regulated and controlled.

People who have problems with gambling, which is often used as an argument to prohibit it, if gambling did not exist would have problems with something else, such as drugs or alcohol.

[mindrust]

Of course no.

Adult people can decide what to do with their money. It is not the government's business. People should have the right to lose money. If online gambling is going to get banned, they should ban real life gambling too. There is barely a difference.

What we need is a better education system and less population. Without these, there will always be lots of losers.

[crwth]

I'm sorry for your loss, Coin_trader. You have what it takes to be an addicted gambler because you are looking for ways to continue gambling even though you have lost so much. You need to understand that you cannot win every time, and finding justification for what happened to you is already troublesome, IMO. I hope you can find a reason to control your gambling before it worsens.

Anyway, I believe that online gambling should be restricted to the ones who can handle it. I think people who have too much time on their hands and gamble their life savings away are the people who should be banned, not the activity itself. It will always be a back-and-forth discussion about which one will be okay. Still, in reality, it's always going to be the person who is at fault and believes that they are doing the right thing even though they are losing so much and affecting the ones they care about.

[swogerino]

The simple answer is a big NO.

The reasons are simple,everyone in the Western world countries is free to choose to do what he wants as long as it is a legal thing.Everyone in such world has always free choices and that is what makes the Western countries as great as they are because of such freedom.Putting a restriction like the one you are asking is a big undermining of such freedoms.

Another reason is that why to ban them when no one forces you to play,it is a free choice you are making to go there and create an account to play.If the governments start restricting things including gambling we risk to turn into autocratic regimes like Russia which is delusional,or like Islamic countries where a lot of things are forbidden.

[Maus0728]

There would be no signature campaigns for us if it were prohibited...

Kidding aside, taxes are probably a factor. After all, the government frequently receives a cut of the profits from online gambling through taxes, which helps the state and economy as a whole.

Two, I'm certain that it will transition to an illegal online gambling industry, making it far worse than it is now while eliminating the government's cash cow. Three, the industry has a lot to offer, much like other markets for addictive goods like those for alcohol and tobacco.

More importantly, why would they outlaw an entire online gambling industry because some people are degenerate gamblers?

[FatFork]

It is important to note that none of your PRO and CON points are specific to online gambling, but rather to gambling in general. Therefore, if we were to apply these arguments, then we should ban all forms of gambling.

Some countries actually have laws against gambling. I'm not sure how much good it did them, because people find a way to get around them. Many people gamble illegally on the black market, and others will simply do so online. Therefore, there is a lot of risk for any government in banning something that people will find a way to circumvent.

[avikz]

The answer is - NO!

First thing we all have to understand is that no gambling houses are a charitable institution. They are a business entity and it really doesn't matter if it's online or offline.

Gambling is an entertainment. If you play it online or offline, it gives you adrenaline rush. Do they not loose money in offline casinos? Obviously they do! So what's the point in banning online casinos and give priority of offline casinos?

[Yaunfitda]

I don't think we will get a clear answer about this, of course we love to hear those debates, but each and everyone here have already their own conclusions (after all, we all did gamble).

Let's look at Macao for example, a country that relies solely on gambling as a means to an end. Of course, their government are going to favor gambling, whether online or offline.

[Oasisman]

No, especially now that it became so viral.

Mainly, because of the tax imposed to these kind of leisure.
Gambling contributes to building of infrastructures including the public schools where some of us here have our children enrolled. I know that sound ironic, building a school out of those money people have wasted. But, no the money you enjoyed wasting is not totally wasted like what the link have stated on the OP.
Therefore, that alone would make the banning of gambling or online gambling almost impossible.

[danherbias07]

Pros:
It adds entertainment, excitement, and thrill to the game, especially in sports.
Cons:
The house always has the upper hand. They won't give you x2 for a game with an obvious winner.
But there are always tactics to make it profitable.

I think we already have a lot of threads for the gambling addiction so scratch that.
Religious. It's up to each person how their faith works. I know a lot of guys who have rules in their religion about not smoking, drinking alcohol, and more but they still do it.
Should it be banned? No. As I said earlier it adds thrill to the game. It's the people who abuse it that suffer from addiction.
It all depends on how it will be used/played individually.

[ethereumhunter]

Why should online gambling be banned? I think that does not make sense as online gambling is available on the internet, which means all people from all countries can access and play it. Maybe people from specific countries can not access or play gambling on one or more casinos but that depends on the casino policy.

It is why before we enter the gambling games, we must have wisdom and control and check if, in our country, gambling is prohibited so we do not break any rules or laws. If our country prohibits gambling, we do not have to try to play gambling because that will make us in trouble. All the things that we know have advantages and disadvantages, including gambling. So we need to know the disadvantage of gambling can make us in danger and you already have that experience. Playing gambling needs to have self-control so we can minimize a big loss.

[Baofeng]

The pandemic really brought out the best of online games whether fiat or crypto base and it really balloon to a billion dollar business even in the pandemic. Other traditional land base casino's too have to go to online because no one can go to their casino's obviously.

And yeah, there are pros/cons and this debate can go over and over again. So it's up to the government, whether they want to shut down online gambling for good, but it will take a lot of effort from them. As for us, obviously we already made a choice, we love to gamble, whether online or offline, whether we have to be entertain or have some fun or target to win big.

[_act_]

The best thing to do with gambling is to make it legal, well regulated and controlled.

This will be the best, but many countries do not well regulate gambling, you can see gambling ads all around and available for even children to be exposed to it, nothing like digital id to connect a single users to all existing gambling platforms in the world in a way to be able to make self exclusion effective and many others. But you are not wrong, gambling should not be banned but regulated.

People who have problems with gambling, which is often used as an argument to prohibit it, if gambling did not exist would have problems with something else, such as drugs or alcohol.

I do not agree with this, because you are not addicted to gambling does not mean you will be addicted to something else like drugs or alcohol. Some people are addicted to drugs or alcohol but not addicted to gambling. Some people are not addicted to anything at all.

Let's look at Macao for example, a country that relies solely on gambling as a means to an end. Of course, their government are going to favor gambling, whether online or offline.

Even not only Macao, most countries in the world favour gambling because their government is making huge profit as tax from gambling platforms in their country, this is the reason even for poor regulations to restrict gambling ads on inappropriate places to display ads.

[Hyphen(-)]

My Answer to your question is No
Gambling has provided a source of income for many people all over the world. In addition, many people gamble for fun, and it rewards them for their efforts.
Gambling has an addiction, and once you are addicted, it will be very difficult to stop. The funny part is that when you are lucky, you can get what you never expect in gambling.
Because gambling has been a lifeline for some of us here through signature campaigns, and many would not have signature campaign if gambling were prohibited, I am vehemently opposed to gambling prohibition.

[Reid]

Conclusion: I got confused because the first time I read this was I’m feeling down that time while my perspective is against gambling but when I read it again when my mind is clear, I realized that the pro side has a valid point too. At that point I noticed that our opinion will varies based on our actual condition because it’s easy to say that it’s just a game if you are not playing and just sitting in the side line but if you are the one who’s experiencing the actual heavy loss, Maybe you will be in favor to the cons side.  


Source: https://www.debatingeurope.eu/focus/arguments-for-and-against-banning-gambling/#.YtD9rS8RX4A

But that heavy loss that you are asking, who did that? It's your decision to gamble more. I have loss a lot of money in gambling too but it never came to me to blame the industry. It was all on me, it's my fault. We can always play at a moderate way but yet we want the big risk and big winnings.
I'm with the pros here as gambling is actually made for that added spice in the different games we play.
Imagine if we are playing dice without money involved, will it still be fun? There must be something added on the line to feel that joy that even if we do it over and over again it won't be boring.

[Gozie51]

There is no excuse that we can make to exonerate ourselves on the reason we lost a gambling bet or we push it to the company or casinos. It is our fault that we lost but not our fault that we played because we intend to double the money we have, doubling money is the main purpose for playing therefore a loss should be taken in good faith and we try to know what mistakes made on our part because the games are always there for we to try our luck.

[rhomelmabini]

It's the future of gambling, it will not be banned. Many huge institutions and companies tend to not ignore this trend and believe it or not that's where we are heading. The time when we just go to land based casinos will come to a decline, not that fast but for sure that will be the case.

[davis196]

Banning some activity won't stop the people from doing it. Drugs are illegal for decades, but this isn't stopping the drug addicts to get high.
It has been stated multiple times that regulating the gambling industry is way better than banning it. At least the government gets tax revenue and the casinos are somewhat forced to implement responsible gambling practices. Banning the entire industry would simply throw it in the hands of the mobsters/organized crime.
The gambling industry can't be blamed for gambling addicts the same way alcohol industry can't be blamed for the alcoholics and the porn industry can't be blamed for porn addicts. We are mature people and we have to take responsibility for your own actions, instead of putting the blame on someone else.