The problem with legislating gambling

Pointing fingers at the gambler is easy but are we looking in the right place?

I chose this as my first post on Steemit for no reason other than its immediate pain.

Consider the existence of gambling not being legislated. Scares you doesn't it? But does it really?

In my short lifetime I have always experienced a regulated gambling environment so it's difficult to imagine what would be and what would not. We are all in that position. We criticize a scenario (no-legislation) because we don't know otherwise. So we back those who ask for more and more laws around the areas we do not understand. We have endless debates around what should and should not be allowed. How about letting things be? Still scared?

Gambling is heavily legislated and only massive institutions get the permits.

How it should be
We have effectively shifted gambling from small pubs offering the slot-machine as an attraction so people can come and have a drink there as opposed to the competitor across the road. The competitor might get his own slot-machine - a better one with more pictures, more lights - and a better payout. He may attract some extra people from around town. Someone figures out that one of the two is using a system that sucks more money out of players. Once proven who would ever play there again? This is how the market regulates itself. The best about this situation is that once these guys start "talking to each other" and make it anti-competitive another guy down the road can just buy himself a slot machine and the market will figure it out.

The best thing about allowing any and everyone to manage their own little gambling-corner is that they cannot go big! You can try but in order to go big you need many people and you need big payouts to attract many people. You need to have that $10,000 carrot dangling. But what if someone wins it? You are gone! Dead in the water. Better not go big. Maybe your little shop in the corner survives, but now everyone knows you are short $10,000. They know you have to drop your payout percentages.

The house always wins
When you introduce the permit system you are moving gambling from an attracter to the boardroom. And when you move it to the boardroom you involve shareholders. Shareholders that can simply take their money somewhere else. Gambling becomes the entire reason for the existence of the business. So when growth slows you have an entire marketing department that create all sorts of enticements that make people come back for more. Now you don't have a small group of addicted people in a small area to entice. You have an entire society and within that society there are those who are naturally inclined to addiction. With an endless budget you have so many more people to suck the life out of. They use psychology and beautiful pictures. They become good at it. They refine. They perfect it! And for good reason.

Gambling is the reason for their existence.

The large company will use all these learnings from years of developing perfection and they have an endless amount of people they can target and they will. That's the only way they make money. That's how business survives. All businesses. They advertise the winners. People with big smiles. It may even be someone who won the jackpot two spins before committing suicide. Doesn't matter. They have a smile on their face. Have you ever been to these massive slot-machine palaces? Have you ever seen a smile or happiness? I only ever see frantic. Even the machine that is loudly making an endless noise while paying out is faced by someone who seems relieved. Not happy.

Yet the pictures speak of only happiness.

What's more, the big boys become so greedy that they pay for laws to the rights to decide which of these little pubs get to have slot-machines. So the frantic moves from the big guy to the small guy. Now the small guy need not worry about the payout. Because the big boy can decide the payout. Of course the big boy won't make the payout at the pub too big because big payouts call big players. And the little pub does not have the people who can deal with the guy who killed himself.

None of this is possible in a non-legislated environment.

The Evil
"So the evil people are in the boardroom right?" No. These directors are simply doing what comes natural to humans. They will not survive if the business goes down. So when the floor reports that they had 3 bodies who killed themselves in the toilets last night they have to harden their hearts because the shareholders are calling. It's human. We harden ourselves. That's life. Get over it. Don't blame the executives.

"So the shareholders are really evil, right? OMG! It's the shareholders! I better sell my shares in that company". Yes, sell your shares. But lets stop blaming the people with the money. The only people that carry no blame are those with the balls to picket outside the legislature asking laws to be abolished. Problem is we are all so caught up in being right and how what-we-say is how the law should be interpreted. That's the problem right there. Even I think I am right to write this article.

So where does the problem lie?
I like gambling. It's not an addiction. It's for the rush. I like calculated risks. It's for bragging rights. Guys are like that. Idiots. But lets stop asking for more laws. Let's ask to cut them. We are turning good people (gamblers, executives, shareholders) into monsters. This rings true for most industries.

I took this photo in a tiny mall next to the long-distance bus terminus in Chinotimba, a high density township in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It's the ultimate gambling spot in Chinotimba. What you are looking at is half the slot-machines in the place. Although it was a Friday evening there were two staff members behind a counter with no patrons whatsoever. On a Friday evening! I am even surprised that I was allowed to take a photo. This is what a gambling spot looks like if you knew the house was stealing from you and you knew you were going to lose, regardless. And you knew that big boys don't care what you may end up doing to yourself. Zimbabwe is a heavily regulated environment. Even laws not written is known and obeyed. I cannot imagine there being anywhere else for the people of Chinotimba to go and have a spin. Not in such a heavily regulated environment with visible R4's on public display. The owner of the business is willing to lose money holding onto his licence, knowing that he need not compete with anyone else.

We really need to get over ourselves and drop the rules. It causes endless pain and even more evil!