My uncle, who is disabled, made $10000 in Vegas last month. My second cousin won the lottery 7 years ago and bought emission-free vehicles for her entire family. Was gambling bad for them?
As you are no doubt aware, if you're evaluating if a thing is good or bad you have to consider its net effect, not a couple isolated examples. This is just a "smoking feels good and well I didn't get lung cancer" argument.
My uncle plays at the Mirage, so excess profits benefit a forgotten community (the Seminole tribe) that was historically and brutally marginalized by the privileged ‘society’ whose net effect you are considering.
The uncle that won $10,000? So that little tidbit wasn't good after all, he was stealing money from a historically marginalized community. And the lotto winner was similarly taking money from public schools.
Someone in Las Vegas last month lost $10,000. For the last 7 years someone has religiously purchased lottery tickets, never winning. Was gambling good for them?
Exceptions don't make it good for the majority of society. Those exceptions are also what keeps people hooked, chasing a carrot until their bank account is empty.
I notice another comment already explained, so I'll just borrow it:
> It taught them gambling pays, and makes them more likely to lose money in the future.
By definition gambling is losing money in long terms (otherwise it's investing, not gambling). A disabled is less likely to recover after a financial disaster.
Obviously because reinforcing what is most likely a psychological addiction is not a good thing, especially amongst a population who in other legal contexts cannot typically give informed consent?
Frankly you come off as purposefully obtuse for the sake of arguing.
My uncle is a triple amputee war vet with a Stanford degree and I’m not sure how he would take to your removal of his agency via accusations of inability to consent or safely gamble
There are two kinds of disabilities, mental and physical. I live alongside people with the former every day, and have my whole life. So while I admit I made an assumption, you failed to be specific.
For the next time you cherry pick anecdotes to try and support some outlandish position, I suggest you at least be specific while doing so. Unless of course that lack of specificity was intentional and this was meant to be a “gotcha”.
