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Phil Derbyshire's avatar

Lots to unpack here and many of these points you cover get casually glossed over in society.

See for me it’s not the vice of gambling but the binge that undoes people. If the Marquis de Sade could have kept his floggings down to one a week the authorities would have probably left him alone. But no the binge did for him.

There’s also another couple of aspects and that is that most people who bet don’t understand how to work out positive expected value. If you bet with no edge there’s basically no point in the long run.

I also really fear for people who binge gamble and have such activities on their bank statements. The underwriters of insurance and especially credit lending facilities (mortgages and the likes of) frown heavily on gamblers.

Mate, would you lend 100k to an unsuccessful gambler hoping to get it back? Not unless you coukd take their house from them…

There are traps everywhere and the network effect of gambling markets and smart phones is the biggest trap of all.

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