Should You be able to buy lotto tickets with a credit card or a debit card? Is this Nanny State bullshit or a prudent precaution?

[DrPepper12]

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/can-you-buy-lottery-tickets-with-a-credit-card

How much rope should you be allowed to fashion yourself a noose in a nominally free society? Normally I'm a firm believer in Edmund Burke that adults can harm themselves as much as they want but I think requiring cash to gamble is an acceptable market intervention for a good reason.

Nanny State BS

Prudent precaution

[NYCQuestions1976]

The lottery is an idiot tax and a pyramid ponzi scheme scam. You've got a better chance to be hit by lightning TWICE than winning the lottery. Also, have you ever watched a lottery drawing? We live in the 21st century and a 4K+ resolution society. Yet nightly/weekly lottery drawings look like they're being filmed with a Texas Instruments calculator and broadcast with a toaster. What a joke. Then people wonder why I want the government to be as tiny and miniscule as possible.

[NYCQuestions1976]

Thanks for Most Helpful. 👍

[NaultD]

Pull tabs at a gs station feels like the first step towards the suicide booths from Futurama. Just like vapes being candy flavored.

I think Gambling of any kind should be in a tourist hotspots. Sure the locals could gamble but it's not a hometown feel to it.

[alli-112]

You shouldn't be able to gambling with money you don't have (I'm looking at you, stock market lol). Getting cash is easy enough if you actually have the money, so I don't see a major downside except a minor inconvenience to gamblers (but one that is intended to protect them anyway). That said I'm not too familiar with gambling and so I'm not sure how effective the policy actually is.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely. Least that way you can prove who purchased it and thd numbers.

In the uk we can purchase online. £2 per ticket and for the euro lotto

[jamesgoldman]

It's probably yo avoid credit card users but easier to say no cards than to pick and choose... I always use cash for the rare occasions I do gamble (both the euromillions lottery and bets (Superbowl and Grand National occasionally other big fixtures and Eurovision))

[David318578]

CC no, it's way to easy for someone to just max out a bunch of CCs trying to win it big.. then never pay off the balance and file for bankruptcy if they don't win.

[DrPepper12]

But that's a corp decision to make, not the state.

[David318578]

Not with privacy laws, the cc company will have no idea what you purchased from Amazon, just that you purchased something from Amazon. So if they don't have access to what you are purchasing then they can't decide to block certain things. Unless there is a law in place about certain items like gambling

[lightbulb27]

good question. I like to avoid controls but when people are trained to be stupid, we have to have controls.

so debit card yes... that's your $. credit card (loans to gamble after paying a fee), no.

[Dongie]

Well here's the down side teacher; a desperate person is a gamblaholic, he/she will max it out and who picks up the tab?

[DrPepper12]

Choices have consequences.
Individuals make choices.
suffer the consequences.

[Dongie]

Yes, and passed on to the consumer or taxpayer.

[Avicenna]

Given the real world issue of gambling addiction, it may be prudent, especially if, as is likely, the people playing the lottery and it’s awful odds are in

[Avicenna]

Credit card debt in the first place

[FunkyMonkee]

How do they know the card holder is the owner of the card? What's stopping the holder from going to an ATM to get the money with the card to buy the ticket?

[Likes2drive]

I think I was able to buy Lotto with a debit card one time in a supermarket, but I don’t think you could do that everywhere, it’s definitely not a good thing if you can use a credit card to buy a lottery ticket

[molonski2]

You can here , I always buy with a card , so I have no knowledge of what you are talking about.

[qwerty2469]

Broke ass loser question. You should buy Bitcoin on a credit card. Positive yield idiot

[Fireguy17]

the processing fees, and people are idiots, so it helps protect them from being even bigger idiots.

[seeyounexttuesday]

Lol, lotteries aren’t “free markets”. Good lord are you dumb.

[DrPepper12]

Read it again

[MuddyMole]

I'd actually have no problem going so far as to simply ban gambling altogether, as many other countries have done (most notably, China). The whole industry is just a parasite on society.

[DrPepper12]

For vast majority it's fun entertainment

[MuddyMole]

There are many other sources of fun entertainment, and gambling is one we could quite easily manage without. While for the vast majority, it might not destroy their lives (as it can for some), there's no doubt that it's still addictive and harmful - almost noone's life has been improved by gambling, and it's the poor who are disproportionately harmed. The rich can afford to lose, and those in the middle simply don't gamble (as statistics show) - it's the poor who are desperate to improve their situation (they dream of winning the lottery etc), and can see no other way than by gambling (there's no point them saving for a house etc, because they'll never have enough). That being the case, even from a purely pragmatic point of view, it doesn't make sense to give welfare payments to poor people, only for them to give it straight to gambling companies. The simple solution, which harms noone but gambling companies, is to just ban gambling.

[DrPepper12]

Bans don't work. Just cuz you're on a diet doesn't mean we can't have a donut.

[MuddyMole]

Depends what you mean by "work" (and some bans certainly do work anyway, such as the smoking ban). Obviously, it's not going to stop everyone, but it would make a big difference. The rise of big online casinos and sports betting companies (and their phone apps) has made gambling far more accessible and convenient, and these same companies also spend absolutely vast amounts on advertising (over $2 billion per year in the UK), which makes it more attractive and harder for addicts to quit (they're also widely viewed by children, helping to breed the next generation of gamblers). Even just shutting down these big online betting companies would make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Stupid motherfuckers do not need a gun to kill their selves with. Gambling on credit is financial suicide.

[DrPepper12]

But their choice to make, no?

[NathanDavis]

well... harm yourself with your own money

[Anonymous]

Yes, I believe you should.