[irishcoffee]

Probation was a thing, too. How did that turn out?

[nemomarx]

There wasn't some mass movement of people doing online gambling that led to the dam bursting and it getting legalized, though. Courts just made a different decision and opened it up one day and as far as I know there wasn't even mass lobbying about it?

[jmcgough]

fanduel and draftkings poured massive amount of money into advertising, pumping their numbers to make it seem like gambling was too big to stop.

[lotsofpulp]

There was mass lobbying, specificially by the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey, via their elected representatives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_v._National_Collegiate_...

Note that it was not a close decision:

> Opinion of the Court

>The Court announced a 7–2 judgment in favor of Murphy on May 14, 2018, reversing the Third Circuit.[25] Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch and in part by Justice Stephen Breyer.[26][27][28] The majority opinion agreed that §§ 3701(1) of PASPA commandeered power from the states to regulate their own gambling industries and thus was unconstitutional. It followed New York v. United States and reversed the Third Circuit decision.

[geoduck14]

Prohibition was incredibly successful at reducing the amount of alcohol people drank

[_carbyau_]

And increasing tunneling skills! And increasing car racing! (Though I still don't get oval racing.)

Prohibition had some unintended consequences.

[DonHopkins]

You'll have to ask your probation officer.

[ok_dad]

You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally.

Frankly, being able to buy drugs and alcohol online is probably a mistake, too.

[JumpCrisscross]

> You can’t download drugs and alcohol digitally

It was almost certainly easier for most people to buy drugs than gamble illegally when both were illegal.

[jmcgough]

Most states had lotteries before this though. At least those brought in tax money and were designed to be relatively fair. Online gambling can shut down your account and refuse to pay if you get too big of a payout, and their money isn't going towards public schools.