• timochka@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 days ago
    | Harm | Annual cost to England | Source |
    | ---- | ---- | ---- |
    Gambling | £1.05–1.77bn | OHID (UK government), 2023
    Illegal drugs | £19.3bn | Dame Carol Black review / UK government response, 2021
    Alcohol | £27.4bn | Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2024
    

    England of course has had a well regulated gambling environment for literally centuries, and regulated online for the best part of 30 years; in an unregulated/prohibition state, I’d expect the numbers for gambling to look worse. Because that’s what regulation does - it minimises harms.

    Probibition does not minimise harms. The 1.5% who are serious problem gamblers will be on black market sites the next day, now with zero protection. The maybe 8% who are at-risk are much more likely to find themselves on a black market site with zero protection, and the remaining 50% who enjoyed gambling and were never harmed by it are the ones that lose out.

    Brazil, for avoidance of doubt, did not have a well-regulated sector. I doubt - and I speak from direct experience - that there was a single operator in Brazil that didn’t have someone in the regulator on their payroll.

    Brazil’s problem isn’t gambling, it’s corruption. This is just a sideshow.