[wpietri]

This makes no sense at all, and is not how business works.

Most economic activity is positive sum. When I'm hungry and on the go, a taco is more valuable to me than raw taco materials, so I pay more for it. Value has been created. The taqueria owner takes money in, pays their expenses, and is left with a profit. Taxes are paid out of that profit, and you could just as well model it as another kind of expense, a societal infrastructure fee.

Many countries use value creation as an explicit taxation model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax

Those are still positive-sum interactions in the economic sense: https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/blog/qa-what-is-a-positive...

[conanbatt]

> Value has been created

But not dollars, which is what you are using to classify gambling as negative-sum.

> Many countries use value creation as an explicit taxation model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax

If the gobernment collected that tax but didnt spend or issued money, even VAT ends up capturing all the money supply.

This is an unnecessary long argumentation. Gambling is not negative sum because they provider entertainment that has utility.

[wpietri]

That is not in fact what I am using to classify gambling as negative-sum. It is also negative-sum in cash terms, but I'm speaking of value.

I understand you are claiming the entertainment value outweighs the harm of exploitation and addiction. I strongly disagree.