[simlevesque]

> What’s the thought process as to why they exist? What would actually happen if the government mandated that they were illegal to operate?

> In australia, slot machines are controlled by organisations which are effectively white collar gangsters.

The thought process is that if it wasn't government run, it would be ran by actual gangsters with much less accountability.

[hsbauauvhabzb]

As opposed to not letting anyone run it, I mean.

[p1necone]

I suspect the reality is that preventing illegal gambling via enforcement would be basically impossible to do effectively without spending a significant portion of the police budget on it. Allowing heavily regulated legal gambling is more like the lesser of two evils.

[hsbauauvhabzb]

I’m curious why you think that. There will always be illegal casinos, but the interest in slot machines would surely not be large enough to reach prohibition level behaviours?

But I’m also unsure how I feel about prohibiting a behaviour, given the whole slippery slope article etc

[jamesfinlayson]

It'd still be run illegally - I'm sure in Queensland there were illegal casinos in pub districts before pokies were legalised in the... 1980s I want to say (or maybe early 1990s). They probably offered gambling on credit and other stuff that is now illegal (not to say it still doesn't happen but it'd be very uncommon).