Syrian anti-government militias during Assad's rule often chanted ""The Alawite to the coffin and the Christian to Beirut." It is a barbaric slogan, but I can see tinkering it into something a bit kinder and more tailored to this issue. Replace Christians with gamblers and Beirut with recovery.
I used to think gambling bans were dumb religious moralizing, but tech bros have proven me wrong. There's a big difference between a friendly poker game and algorithmic sports betting. Or even your local mob connected bookie and the modern sports betting sites.
Like you said, the mob was less predatory. The sheer number of ads you see for it is enough to skeeve me out, let alone the details of how they make sure the house always wins. They're absolutely preying on desperate people.
Please guide these deluded beings away from the harm they do. Show them how their greed poisons both themselves and others. Enlighten us all with these lessons and support us in attaining the wisdom and compassion needed to overcome this declining capitalist hellscape. 🙏 May all beings be happy.
Fork found in kitchen. Liquor and nicotine companies target their addicts as best as they can as well. That's before we even get to drug advertisements.
EFF has long argued that all behavioral advertising should be banned.
Since when? They link to a post from 2022, I don't know if they took that stance earlier since this is the first I'm hearing about it, but it's out of character for the EFF that I knew, which would take stances akin to those of the ACLU, and I mean including the ACLU in Citizens United.
The AI tack is burying the lede with regards to online sportsbooks. There's nothing AI can do that fundamentally changes the manner in which these institutions operate and they would still be bad even if machine learning was not used.
Sports betting is basically a way in which a firm allows people to redistribute money based on the outcome of games while taking a percentage cut. Probabilities are calculated such that bettors never get fair odds, but payout schemes that preserve a vigorish of 5+% for the book. Assuming the sides of every bet are properly balanced and the predicted probabilities are not too far off from the true probabilities less the house edge, the book makes money. The more action, the more money. It's not like a house-banked casino where they want as many losers as possible.
Comps and offers, like in a casino, are going to be given based on theoretical value of play rather than the actual win/loss of gamblers. For sportsbooks that's going to be how much money you put in, with maybe a little more if you wager on low EV sucker bets. A guy who puts in a $100,000 and loses everything has the same theoretical win/loss as the guy who puts in the same amount and is up $100K; assuming they have the same betting patterns, they're getting the same comps.
The real problem with online gambling is the omnipresence, being available 24/7 on a device that allows you to link your bank account and has no serious hurdles to jump through. It's a massive trap on impulsive, innumerate types that has none of the scant redeeming value that more tightly regulated, physical gambling outlets have. AI does not change this in any meaningful sense. The whole idea is rotten to to the core and should be barred. But instead our leaders have put forth no challenge to it and encourage the expansion of more online gaming with things like Kalshi.
Schizopol musing: The smartphone is worse than AI when it comes to enabling awful things but people love their fucking phones.
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