I’m generally in the “no step on snek” camp, but it’s clear why states restrict gambling

It siphons attention away from meaningful uses of time and also drives down moral due to the nature of who wins and loses

We make exceptions for equity, bond & commodity markets because the underlying assets have productive value

friendly neighborhood shitcaster // working on @pinetree

we also heavily regulate how they are marketed

money in someone's pocket also has productive value

lot of the economic activity in the financial sector is only different from gambling in its professionalization

although i agree that things like the lottery end up essentially as a regressive tax on poor people in practice

i reckon they mostly restrict it so they can effectively maintain monopolies on gambling within their jurisdictions, with state lotteries and the such. at least in the u.s.