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by LeifCarrotson 936 days ago
They're using this API to sell gambling services, but they're apparently required to check that it's legal for the user to gamble.

Unrelated, I hate how GIS systems built on text search are turning geometry problems which are easy to reason about into unpredictable database problems.

> It appears that the API might be following this process:

> 1. Takes the coordinates and identifies the nearest building + street address.

> 2. Performs a textual best match query across its datasets.

> 3. Returns the first record, mixing up the fields from different locations.

The fact that the first Google autocomplete for the address "3520 S State St" happens to be the State St. in Utah, not Illinois, has absolutely nothing to do with whether the lat/lon coordinates (41.8,-87.6) are in the geographical boundary which describes Illinois and Utah.