• timochka@lemmy.zip
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    12 hours ago
    | Harm | Annual cost to England | Source |
    | ---- | ---- | ---- |
    Gambling | £1.05–1.77bn | OHID (UK government), 2023
    Illegal drugs | £19.3bn | Dame Carol Black review / UK government response, 2021
    Alcohol | £27.4bn | Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2024
    

    England of course has had a well regulated gambling environment for literally centuries, and regulated online for the best part of 30 years; in an unregulated/prohibition state, I’d expect the numbers for gambling to look worse. Because that’s what regulation does - it minimises harms.

    Probibition does not minimise harms. The 1.5% who are serious problem gamblers will be on black market sites the next day, now with zero protection. The maybe 8% who are at-risk are much more likely to find themselves on a black market site with zero protection, and the remaining 50% who enjoyed gambling and were never harmed by it are the ones that lose out.

    Brazil, for avoidance of doubt, did not have a well-regulated sector. I doubt - and I speak from direct experience - that there was a single operator in Brazil that didn’t have someone in the regulator on their payroll.

    Brazil’s problem isn’t gambling, it’s corruption. This is just a sideshow.

      • timochka@lemmy.zip
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        9 hours ago

        The references were given. It’s not my job to do your research for you.

          • timochka@lemmy.zip
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            9 hours ago

            If that’s the best you’ve got, then my work here is done.

            Good luck with the revolution, or whatever it is you have planned today. Up the proles, and all that.