As the gambling industry continues to grow globally with the rise of online gambling, a recent report from the medical journal The Lancet’s commission on gambling calls is calling on governments to approach gambling as a public health issue.
Malcolm Sparrow, one of the authors of the report, says this will put gambling in the same category as alcohol and tobacco, which are identified by the World Health Organization as issues of the public interest.
Statistics Canada estimates that in 2018, nearly two-thirds of Canadians gambled in the past year. The data estimates that about 300,000 Canadians were at moderate-to-severe risk of developing a gambling problem, where gambling starts to negatively affect a person’s life.
I saw this shit crush people back when it was a legal grey area operated out of random sites in Bermuda and shit. The fact that it’s every other commercial during sporting events, and you can just scan a credit card to start an account, is a ticking time bomb in our society.
It’s no different than when provincial gov’ts found lotteries and casinos were thee cash cow they needed to fund their tax coffers instead of taxing the rich … which is what should have been done.
Privatize and tax the fuck of ALL forms of gambling and get the gov’t out of it.
Maybe the maroons in the ontario grubberment shouldnt have legalized it, the gimps
Man I remember when the web was new online gambling was banned. When the fuck did we get paid off? We know this shit is bad.
Ford.
Yeah, this is exclusively an Ontario problems, for now.
Ford: Yes, but what about all these bribes?
or maybe make life here more affordable and less miserable so people don’t seek out literally anything that will make them temporarily feel better or a risky bet on an easy way out
I half agree with this comment, but greed also plays into this. people think they will be the next millionaire for social media to worship. I actually prefer to live a very low income life because I don’t care nor ever want to be rich.
What do Gambling, Social Media, Video Games, and Pornography all have in common?
They aren’t the problem, Dopamine is.
4chan user spotted.
Is that supposed to be an insult?
Try saying something meaningful next time so you don’t feel the need to spam my inbox 4 day old troll.
Alright, just ban dopamine /s
Your comment gives off serious “I am very smart” vibes
The point is not to ban anything simply because people are, or can become, addicted to it.
right, so instead of killing the problem at the root, we just allow it to flourish and nip off the bad buds over and over even if that doesn’t fix the issue…
This isn’t killing the problem at the root.
The root of the problem is a complete lack of care for people with addictions and mental health issues. No amount of regulation will help the root when it does not involve increase addictions and mental health care spaces.
Neither alcohol nor tobacco are banned in Canada, and this is asking to put online gambling on the same level.
Gambling is already regulated in Canada.
Nobody claimed otherwise.
Neither alcohol nor tobacco are banned in Canada, and this is asking to put online gambling on the same level.
If this is asking for gambling to be on the same level as alcohol and tobacco, does that not imply gambling isn’t on the same regulatory level as the others?
Exactly. They’re all regulated. But gambling (addiction) is not an official “public health issue”. As the linked paper states:
First, gambling is a public health issue. In setting policy, governments should give priority to protecting health and wellbeing over competing economic motivations.
It’s not a call to start regulating gambling, but to change the way to look at it and act accordingly.
Nah, predatory capitalism is the problem
Capitalism simply gives people the dopamine they crave in whatever way they choose or are told they want to get it.
I think you mean commerce and marketing ‘give’ those things. Capitalism is about preserving financial wealth and dividing access to health and agency in regulating one’s dopamine (to use your pet metaphor) according to wealth
Ah yes, dopamine. The pop science final boss. Neurotransmitters are way more complex than this… Dopamine is responsible for some functions to do with the brains reward systems, but definitely not all, and it has LOTS of other functions in the brain and body.
Dopamine is not the problem. Corrupt and incompetent government is.
How exactly is the “Corrupt and incompetent government” responsible for people getting addicted to something?
I’m going to go off a limb and assume your a sweet summer child and were not aware of the smoking ads in the past.
I am going to assume you like the smell of your own farts, based on the condescending tone of your comment, and are not aware that people still start smoking without advertisements for cigarettes.
That’s an easy one. For example, by allowing the marketing or product to be unduly attractive to children
How does one market something in a way that isn’t attractive to anyone between the ages of 0 and 17?
A total lack of regulation and a wold view so far behind reality that they cant even identify problems until years after they occur.
Why is the Government responsible for regulating an adult activity beyond age restricting that activity?
