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by summer_steven 3128 days ago
The point of accredited investing is to lock the middle class out of the market.

If the law was really about "protecting people", then gambling and the lottery would also be illegal.

Also, why can't I sign a paper saying I accept the risk of investing? Why can't I become an accredited investor by passing a class? I can pass a series of classes to become an EMT and be trusted with peoples lives, but no classes are sufficient to educate me about investing in startups.

When you look at how the accredited investor laws are structured, its clearly meant lock the middle class out of the market
2 comments
gowld 3128 days ago
> Also, why can't I sign a paper saying I accept the risk of investing?

You can! All you have to do is lie on your affadavit of accredition, granting you the two things you want: (1) investment in the venture, to (2) no ability to file criminal charges on the venture management if you get fleeced. You do want both of those, right?

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vel0city 3128 days ago
FWIW, in most of the US gambling is illegal and lotteries are often regulated by the State.
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maxerickson 3128 days ago
There's loads of casinos though:

https://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/united-states/map

And aren't states mostly the beneficiaries of lotteries? Here the revenue is supposed to go to schools or something.

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vel0city 3125 days ago
That source is pretty questionable. I'm pretty familiar with Texas' gambling laws so I was surprised to see so many "casinos" in Texas. Upon further review, many of those points are improperly placed, with actual casinos being out of state but simply matching a partial address. I'd take that map with a massive grain of salt, as chances are a high percentage of points are probably wrong. Of the three casinos near DFW, two are out of state with the third being a horse racing track. The one outside Austin really exists in Indiana. It also shows cruise ships, which usually don't begin gambling until they're well offshore.

I'm not going to deny there are many casinos (there are plenty) but the OP's statement of "gambling and the lottery would also be illegal" seems to miss that in probably the vast majority of the US, gambling and operating lotteries is illegal. For example, Texas recently had to have a constitutional amendment to allow sports teams to hold charitable raffles.

https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_Proposition_5,_Definition_of_P...

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