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How is gambling a zero sum game? According to the article, taxes from the Casino operations are $393M, and from clubs operations $300M, so thats $693 tax revenue the government wouldn't otherwise have. How many hospitals, schools and other social facilities can be built with $693M per year. Also add in the venue staff running the place, the builders building the facilities, the engineers and technicians building the machines, etc. An enormous amount of people are employed in the industry, and the government gets $693M per year extra which it wouldn't have it Gaming was illegal. How is this a zero sum equation?


Gambling is a zero sum game because by nature, it creates no new or additional value. It's simply a matter of definition.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/z/zero-sumgame.asp

In other words, someone wins and someone loses. Just because someone benefits doesn't mean it isn't a zero sum game. Stealing is also a zero sum game. It benefits the criminals who steal ( but no new value is created ). It's simply a transfer of wealth, not a creation of wealth. That's why it is zero sum.


I'm looking forward to his answer to this. But I would guess it's something along the lines of:

-Society spends 2B gambling

-Govt receives .7B tax revenue and spends it poorly

-Game owners pocket 1.3B which disappears forever

-Cost of increased social safety net, suicides, etc.

VS

-Society spends 1.5B on goods and services rather than gambling

I don't think it's fair to count the venue, staff, etc., if the same money would otherwise be spent on other goods and services.




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