Sports betting: Gambling’s no game

Bob says:

10:37am | 12/06/11

Correct Acotrel. More government is almost never the answer, personal responsibility is. Gambling is corrosive slime. This is well know and responsible individuals should avoid it at all costs. Individuals should also be aware that they are watching a commercial sports broadcast that will attempt to sell them products and services at every term. The sensible thing to do is switch off the TV, forget about living vicariously through sports people and get on with life. Go outside and do something with your family.

acotrel says:

09:05am | 13/06/11

@Bob I agree.  Most of us seem to avoid participation in any sphere. I believe that TV should be much more educative.  A while back SBS had programmes from the Universtity of Woolongong - no longer happens.  Apparently we Australians are disinterested in anything esoteric, probably because of our constant indoctrination. Bring on the NBN! If we can get academics to impart some of their valuable information, it might even have an impact on Australia’s future.

St. Michael says:

03:15pm | 13/06/11

I call bullshit.  The free market is the best method we have for ensuring prosperity to the largest number of people in it.  It’s not perfect, but it’s better than any other system we’ve tried.

And it’s also more powerful than any government decision can ever try to tie it down.  The free market has nothing to do with for or against making decisions about people’s welfare.  That’s an issue of society’s compassion, not regulation of the free market.

Arguing the free market must be overregulated to preserve society is quite literally saying you have to hold your breath to make sure you don’t get lung cancer.  And it’s just as futile an experiment, too.

John says:

04:32pm | 13/06/11

Free Market only benefits the International Bankers. When two country’s run out of money, they just get loans with interest from the international bankers to purchase their goods from other country’s. Look at the US 14 Trillion, Portugal, Greece, Ireland. I personally think the International Bankers are swindling a heap of wealth with their scheme’s. This would explain this work to live scenario in west, were people get know where, and the international bankers get richer. Inflation is going through the roof because of this money creation, no country’s are creating goods, and china is getting all the work. While nations just borrow from international bankers, to purchase Chinese gods, they sell it the western consumer, who loans out money from the international banker to buy the product. So basically the national debt keeps rising and rising. Nations might be working hard, but when half their wealth is going to the international bankers, it means that entire national wealth are being looted.

We need national banks and we need a national free market. Not an international one. The living standards and work would increase instantly. The debt, would be also no existent.

St. Michael says:

05:23pm | 13/06/11

*sigh* Where do I begin…

National banks like the US Federal Reserve and the RBA are largely responsible for the present debt crisis.  Or rather it’s not the banks as such so much as the fact the government produces fiat money—every dollar you have—which is not backed by gold or any other standard of any kind (the US dollar has been off the gold standard since Nixon).  The truly interesting part is that fiat money off the gold standard—i.e. that your country of residence produces the only legal means of currency—has only been with us comparatively recently.  There was a Free Banking Era in Europe and the US roughly 150 years ago where various banks issued their *own* currency—and it worked pretty well.

Take out a $20 note and look at it.  It is only paper (or plastic, or some hybrid of it) and only has any value while (a) the government says it has a value and (b) people trust the currency enough to trade with it.  Contrary to mythology, you cannot turn in your dollars at the RBA and receive the equivalent value in gold.  Fort Knox’s gold is similarly not redeemable for cash, either.

Zimbabwe is what happens when fiat money loses its value.  It only happens because the government prints too much of it.  In Zimbabwe, the printing press was involved.  In the US, it’s the Federal Reserve buying back its bonds with money it doesn’t actually have.  The result is the same, though.

In both cases, it is in practical terms counterfeiting—except it is legal because the government does it.  The problem being that “counterfeiting” at the scale that governments do it makes goods rise in value way too fast, or hyperinflates the currency, which is what happened in Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany.

The very last thing you could want for any sort of a functioning economy is an all-powerful national bank.  The last time we had one, it was connected to the government: the RBA pumped up interest rates whenever Labor said it should, again in a failed attempt at stopping inflation.  But inflation exists only because governments fuck around with fiat currency, and only stops when they stop spending and keeping too much money in the system.

Free trade works.  It’s proven.  It also can’t be regulated or legislated out of existence - it will get around any law, no matter what it is.  It has to be regulated, yes.  But it only fails or hurts people when governments stuff around with it or try to get out of their debts by printing too much money to pay it off.

charlie says:

11:37am | 13/06/11

Wrong - Illegal gambling increases with grossly less regulation and a much greater ability to fix matches becasue it is a completely non-transparent process

acotrel says:

10:09am | 12/06/11

Eddie Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew wrote a couple of books - ‘propaganda’ and ‘chrystallizing public opinion’.  Both relate to manipulation using people’s subconscious.  His work has influenced the major corporations of America, and brought economic benefits.  However the cynical abuse of the psychology has done a few really bad things.  It helped bring Hitler to power.  It brought about the concept of psychological imprinting which is used in the design of poker machines.  And it’s helped advertisers play on people’s addictions.  The idea is you create a demand, then supply an answer.  - Sound familiar?

Seano says:

11:56am | 12/06/11

Agreed Patrick.

The freedom of the majority of sensible people should not be curtailed because of the stupidity of a few. This bloke should be upset at losing the 85K, hopefully he’ll learn a lesson.

The lesson that Xenophon seems to be teaching this bloke is that he can whinge about being able to gamble to alleviate his guilt.

I agree with common sense checks and balances, you can’t gamble on credit, no ATM’s in pokie rooms and no advertising during sports marketed to children etc. etc.

But people have to take responsibility for their own lives.

Bob says:

12:09pm | 12/06/11

Someone in the government should do something

jf says:

04:57pm | 12/06/11

Seano says:11:56am | 12/06/11

Is that the real Seano? If so, I agree. Again. It’s becoming a habit mate.

However, I do think that there needs to be some rules in relation to manipulation, transparency, unconscionable conduct and so on and where companies break the rules the consequences should be immediate and extreme.

Seano says:

11:14pm | 12/06/11

Is that the real jf? Yes I agree with that too. Just because people should be free to gamble if they want doesn’t mean companies should be free to exploit the weak.