Should casinos/lotteries be legal?

[greenforest32]

?

[© tweed]

yes but odds of winning should be adjusted for the gambler's net worth as to be redistributionist.

[patrick1]

Lotteries should be state run.  Casinos should be privately run without government being paid a very healthy licensing fee.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Both should be legal. Casinos need to be done differently than the way they are now though which is basically giving a monopoly to certain people.

[© tweed]

yes but odds of winning should be adjusted for the gambler's net worth as to be redistributionist.

no one else found this amusingly absurd?  I laughed for a long time after I came up with it.

[John Dibble]

Lotteries should be state run.  Casinos should be privately run without government being paid a very healthy licensing fee.

This sounds about right.

[Mr. Taft Republican]

It should all be privately run, but taxed.

[Joe Republic]

The economy of my entire state would collapse overnight if they were banned, so I guess I'm in favor.

[k-onmmunist]

Casinos + the lottery should be state owned. Smaller gambling venues should be private.

[Frodo]

Yes, but as with strip clubs, marijuana cafes, and the like, they should be only privately run. 

[Хahar 🤔]

No

[© tweed]

No

how about not-for-profit casinos run by a) the State and b) not by the State?

[Хahar 🤔]

No

how about not-for-profit casinos run by a) the State and b) not by the State?

a) No
b) No

[Boris]

If I ever make it to the roulette tables at Monte Carlo, I'll know I'd have accomplished everything I've set out to do in life.

[Vote UKIP!]

No.

I live a state that has had a lottery since the nineties under Zell Miller. The purpose of the lottery was to fund the HOPE scholarship. Now the number of applicants outpace what revenue the lottery makes. We implemented a fix that was supposed to work only fail as we continue to get more applicants.

Using the lottery to fund any government enterprise fails. Period.

[© tweed]

No

how about not-for-profit casinos run by a) the State and b) not by the State?

a) No
b) No

c) how do we define 'casino'?

[TJ in Oregon]

A lottery is kind of like reverse-wealth distribution; it takes a little bit of money from a bunch of people and gives it all to one. And gambling is also backwards from the sort of risk mitigation most people find economically desireable. I personally feel as though if someone wants me to gamble, they should be offering me a better average outcome than just getting my money back. As far as the legality, I'm not opposed on any moral grounds, so I think it depends on whether or not it would help an area. Clearly banning casinos from Nevada would not be good for their state. But, I also voted against building them in Ohio because I felt it would be more harmful than beneficial by destroying families and increasing addiction. I generally vote against things that we legalize and then spend some of the money from legalization trying to convince people not to do the thing we just legalized. That, and Ohio's amendment prevented local governments from having control over the casinos and expressedly said any game legal in any adjacent state would be legal in Ohio. It seemed like a stupid thing to agree to.

[memphis]

No. Sometimes stupid people have to be protected from their own stupidity. And I hate how the TN lottery is so smug about funding higher education. If the state of TN is serious about funding college (for mostly middle class kids) there are many better ways than screwing over poors.

[Vote UKIP!]

No. Sometimes stupid people have to be protected from their own stupidity. And I hate how the TN lottery is so smug about funding higher education. If the state of TN is serious about funding college (for mostly middle class kids) there are many better ways than screwing over poors.

I know people in Tennessee who could more than afford to send their kids to college, but decided to ride on HOPE. That's why, in part, why I hate such scholarships: the poor pay for middle class grants.

[Ebowed]

Absolutely not.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There are a ton of casinos just south of Minneapolis, and I know plenty of people who visit them fairly frequently. None of them are expecting to come back big winners, or even with the money they are bringing in. People blow as much money on stupid things all the time. At least in this case we get more of it back.

As for the lottery, the primary use of it I see is for scratch off tickets to be given away as prizes in work promotions. No one expects to ever win big (though it was nice the time I got over $40 from a batch of them I won.)

[© tweed]

No

how about not-for-profit casinos run by a) the State and b) not by the State?

a) No
b) No

c) how do we define 'casino'?

not letting you off the hook.  what is a casino, Xahee?

[angus]

I favor legalizing all gambling.  I think the private sector should be able to run its own houses, within reasonable regulations (posting of odds, fair dice, etc.)  I think the state lotteries are a great way for the state to make money, but that it should be used for effect.  Earmark it for schools, or bridges, or whatever, instead of letting it get slushed into the general fund.

The biggest problem with all this is that those who can least afford them are generally the ones that I see buying lottery tickets, but that's more of a long-term, systemic, educational problem, and such problems will be there with or without state lotteries.  The lottery at least help us identify the problem.

I'm not as bully about the cockfights and dograces, mostly because it often involves the harsh treatment of animals.  If we shouldn't force a fish to smoke pot, then we shouldn't force them to compete.