Same as beer or any other drug - just a way to have some fun and not destructive provided you can control yourself.
Though, the one time I opened a CSGO gun case and felt the dopamine rush, it was way stronger than any drug I've done. Not that I'm a "highly-experienced individual", but alcohol, weed or adderall don't come close to a CSGO case. Gambling feels much riskier.
I can't think of any addiction worse than gambling. It can ruin the life of a family quickly whereas all other addictions are in general only self destructive.
Regulation and education are where the sane middle ground is. You don't outright ban the stuff (which is expensive and doesn't work anyway) but you keep the worst of the harms it causes from getting too out of control. Sadly, gambling is under-regulated and we'll probably all be suffering for a while as a result before regulations are tightened back up.
Alcohol is the only painkiller which can be infinitely self-administered. There's value in that. It's quite ancient, been proven to work, which is why it's probably stuck around so long.
Maybe I enjoy having an arsenal of late-model machine guns, doing research on rare nuclear isotopes, brewing cholera in my septic tank, tending a Japanese knotwood garden, raising lantern flies, and breeding new strains of cold viruses.
Perhaps society should continue to restrain such hobbies.
What is the point of being this obtuse? Is there a rhetorical benefit to pretending that gambling is not a vice? That it is just a "hobby"? Should we apply this logic to selling illegal drugs?
>How would you like it if people who didn't care about your hobby started questioning the social benefit of allowing you to do it?
Gambling? Is people questioning gambling a new thing? Seems like the opposite is the case. Again, this is where being purposefuly obtuse gets us.
> Should we apply this logic to selling illegal drugs?
Yes, of course.
Selling drugs is also a private transaction between two people that does no harm to anyone else.
If the people buying or selling drugs are harmful to others in the rest of their life, that's on them. It shouldn't be used as a fig leaf to negatively impact people who can buy and sell drugs responsibly.
>What is the societal benefit provided by it?
Same as beer or any other drug - just a way to have some fun and not destructive provided you can control yourself.
Though, the one time I opened a CSGO gun case and felt the dopamine rush, it was way stronger than any drug I've done. Not that I'm a "highly-experienced individual", but alcohol, weed or adderall don't come close to a CSGO case. Gambling feels much riskier.
I can't think of any addiction worse than gambling. It can ruin the life of a family quickly whereas all other addictions are in general only self destructive.
Those things should really be illegal too, I think, even as someone who enjoys alcohol.
The costs to society due to alcohol and the like are massive for essentially no real benefit.
Yes, I know what happened during prohibition. That still doesn’t mean alcohol is good for society.
Regulation and education are where the sane middle ground is. You don't outright ban the stuff (which is expensive and doesn't work anyway) but you keep the worst of the harms it causes from getting too out of control. Sadly, gambling is under-regulated and we'll probably all be suffering for a while as a result before regulations are tightened back up.
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Alcohol is the only painkiller which can be infinitely self-administered. There's value in that. It's quite ancient, been proven to work, which is why it's probably stuck around so long.
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Some people want to gamble and the gambling industry provides what they want.
How would you like it if people who didn't care about your hobby started questioning the social benefit of allowing you to do it?
> How would you like it if people who didn't care about your hobby started questioning the social benefit of allowing you to do it?
In this hypothetical scenario, is my hobby actively harmful to society?
Some people would enjoy killing people but we don’t let them do that.
Gambling isn't harmful to society. A gambling bet is a private bet between two people.
If some people who like gambling are harmful to society in other areas of their life, that's on them.
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Maybe I enjoy having an arsenal of late-model machine guns, doing research on rare nuclear isotopes, brewing cholera in my septic tank, tending a Japanese knotwood garden, raising lantern flies, and breeding new strains of cold viruses.
Perhaps society should continue to restrain such hobbies.
Those are all good examples of things that you could in principle do without harming other people, so I don't see your point.
Yes, you should be allowed to do those things as long as you do it without harming others.
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What is the point of being this obtuse? Is there a rhetorical benefit to pretending that gambling is not a vice? That it is just a "hobby"? Should we apply this logic to selling illegal drugs?
>How would you like it if people who didn't care about your hobby started questioning the social benefit of allowing you to do it?
Gambling? Is people questioning gambling a new thing? Seems like the opposite is the case. Again, this is where being purposefuly obtuse gets us.
> Should we apply this logic to selling illegal drugs?
Yes, of course.
Selling drugs is also a private transaction between two people that does no harm to anyone else.
If the people buying or selling drugs are harmful to others in the rest of their life, that's on them. It shouldn't be used as a fig leaf to negatively impact people who can buy and sell drugs responsibly.
Entertainment.
It's also the only vice you don't have to ingest an outside substance for.
> the only vice you don't have to ingest an outside substance for
to name a couple: gaming, prostitution (okay you might incidentally ingest an outside substance but YOU DON'T HAVE TO)
I wouldn't classify gaming as a vice.
You could say the same for dog fighting.