[chartered_stack]

> Governments have no right or authority to stop us from being idiots if we want to be idiots.

This sounds fine in theory but it ignores the fact that gambling today isn’t just about individuals making free choices in a vacuum. There’s an active, systemic push to get people hooked. Millions (billions?) are spent on ads, algorithms, and dark patterns designed to keep people hooked. That's not freedom - that's exploitation.

With modern tech like gambling apps on your phone, 24/7 internet access, social media tie-ins the problem multiplies. You don't have to go to a casino when you have one in your pocket. The same tricks that make people lose hours on TikTok are being weaponized to make them lose their money.

Freedom matters. But if the entire system is engineered to trap people in endless dopamine hits, then society has to step in. Not to ban choice, but to create a framework that tilts people away from predatory addiction loops and toward things that actually build resilience and meaning. Otherwise “freedom” just becomes another word for “you’re on your own while other people drain you dry.”

[mind_orbit]

This article https://www.rosloto.net/en/how-vs-and-big-tech-investments-a... is very much on point — it shows how VC funds and global tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple are directly or indirectly investing in the online casino market

[notepad0x90]

Those same traps and dark patterns you mentioned are used well beyond gambling. those things themselves should be regulated, not gambling. You're arguing against something unrelated to the topic here. It's fine to trap and addict people into gambling, and then punish them for getting addicted and trapped? how does that make sense? let people gamble if they want, but ban malicious and hostile practices of capitalism. Whether it is gambling,shopping addiction, social media addiction, porn or political influence campaigns, the practice and trappings are the same and should be heavily regulated. No argument there.