Policy on Gambling

I like "Pearls and Irritations" (https://pearlsandirritations.com/), where a range of opinions and information appears. I was amused that this article is supposedly about bullshit (meaning statements where the asserting party doesn't know or care about the truth) but sashays into gambling reform with "The claim you can meaningfully find a “balance” between these two outcomes is bullshit. The only morally acceptable “balance” is harm prevention 1 / corporate profit 0.". The author knows full well that that isn't the balance being considered! I think the balance was between harm and the positive value of the income to pubs, clubs and local media. While I agree with the anti-gambling folk who say that it doesn't go far enough in controlling gambling advertising, I think the true balance is being missed.

Part of the true balance is that we don't want to live in a nanny state. We don't want the government to be unnecessarily involved in deciding if an individual's activity choices are wise. However the government and law have a role where others are harmed, or even inconvenienced. As a practical matter, society saves people who get lost on unwise bush walks, or spend so much on gambling or illegal drugs that they risk starving to death. And even dead bodies are inconvenient to deal with. We mostly feel that these rare cases don't justify expensive preventative measures. But there is an issue which should be at the forefront of policy on gambling (and alcohol and some other activities).

That issue is family responsibility. Because often the gambler is abusing their access to money and other resources which are needed by, and rightfully should be available to, their partners and children and other dependants. I don't have a good answer to this. I think it means that anonymous gambling can't be allowed, and gamblers should register their dependants. Suppose you have one 100% dependant. To bet $100, you have to also pay $100 to a government controlled trust for the dependant. If you win you get that back, but more often it builds up. Managing the use of that trust money is going to be tricky if the dependant is not an adult.

Once upon a time the government made it illegal for people to bet with each other, most famously in two-up. Then they allowed and profited from gambling monopolies. Then they came to love those taxable gambling businesses. This is bad. What we should be doing is providing a gambling marketplace where Australian individuals can place bets with other Australian individuals, and thus get rid of gambling advertising by out-competing the gambling businesses.