My government (Norway) refuses to let me use my VISA- and Mastercard freely!

[El_Machinae]

Gambling is bad for you, so we won't allow you to do it... unless we're the ones you are gambling with!

It does make sense for a government to be involved in providing a vice, though. The government program can choose to run at a low level of profit. It also allows a legal out for those who're addicted.

I support the banning of (say) heroin in my country, except for sanctioned dispensaries.

 

[Karalysia]

I think you're all underestimating how serious of a social ill gambaling is. It can ruin your life just like hard drugs, and frankly if the government is going to make hard drugs illegal than certainely gambaling should also be.

 

[luiz]

I think you're all underestimating how serious of a social ill gambaling is. It can ruin your life just like hard drugs, and frankly if the government is going to make hard drugs illegal than certainely gambaling should also be.

It's not the same. Gambling can ruin your life, yes, but it does not cause the chemical dependence that hard drugs do. One can perfectly well have a little recreational gambling; I know I have. There's no such thing however as injecting a little recreation heroin in your veins.

The government has absolutely no business telling me I can't play poker on the internet. As I said, the government does not own me.

 

[Volum]

It dosnt really make that much of a difference. Online gambling sites are run from abroad and they have already given Norwegian users other options so this dosn't stop people from gambling online. All this does is make it hard for people paying with VISA the next time they check in at a hotel in Vegas that also has a casino.

This whole thing really took off after a man managed go gamble away 60 million NOK, over 900 000$ by getting his parents and his parents friends to loan him money for a IT company he said he was working on in Prague. His parents took up loans from banks and friends and when the whole thing came down they where declared bankrupt, his father was also a bishop and the whole story became pretty big in Norway. The bishops son who gambled away all the money is now suing the betting companies demanding the 60 million back, and last week the Supreme court decided to hear the case

Btw, advertising for betting companies (that isnt state run), alcohol and tobacco are all illegal in Norway.

 

[Pangur Bán]

I think that's a very condescending approach to the situation. Every day I talk to and work with people who are very poor (extremely poor for first world standards) and have virtually no formal education; people who can barely read and write. And yet they know very well that gambling is bad, that one should not spend more than one makes and that money is better kept at a savings acount in a bank.

Poor and uneducated is not the same as "imbecile". The root of the worst tyrannies is trying to save people from themselves. You do not know what is best for the poor, accept that fact.

Listen, I don't feel guilty for a second about "condescending". It's not because people are dumb that they are exploitable ... I never said that. And of course many people are smart enough to know not to. This is the same with everything. Most 10 years olds wouldn't have sex with adults if it were legal, most people wouldn't take cocaine if it were legal, and so on ... doesn't mean it should be.

 

[GinandTonic]

Doesnt the US gov do the same thing and mandate credit card companies block payments to most online gambling sites? Allowing the cards to be used only in US taxed sites?

 

[Zelig]

Doesnt the US gov do the same thing and mandate credit card companies block payments to most online gambling sites? Allowing the cards to be used only in US taxed sites?

Well, in Canada, gambling with credit card money (buying lottery tickets, etc.) is considered a cash advance by the credit card issuer, so you're charged a cash advance fee, and immediately begin accruing interest on the amount spent.

 

[warpus]

I'm not against gambling for any anti-gambling idelogy, because I believe in "big government" or because I think God hates it ... it's just disgusting what it does to people, and I don't think the government should sit by and allow legalised theft against the most exploitable sections of society.

Gambling CAN be fun, if you don't abuse it and go all apecrap and waste all your life savings betting on horse races or blackjack or whatever.

Just because some people can't control their impulses doesn't mean that the government should be stepping in and preventing the rest of us of having fun.

The stupid amongst us are exploitable, sure, but that's nothing new.

 

[Cheetah]

I'm just gonna add to this:

http://www.dagensit.no/article1926297.ece - Norwegian article unfortunately.

Four Norwegians flew to Limassol on Cyprus to go onboard a three-day cruise between Limassol and Rhodos in the beginning of June. However, when they went to the travel agency Ricky's Travel to pay they ran into a small problem - not a single credit- or debitcard form any of the Norwegians worked.

- We didn't understand anything and the people in the travel agency were quite upset. The terminal gave no information whatsoever about why it didn't work, says Geir Wirkola to Dagensit.no.

The problem was that even if the travel agency operates the card terminal, it was the cruise company who was the reciever of the transaction. Since the cruiseships have rouletttables and slot machines the cruise company has been put into the category for games and gambling in the Visa and Mastercard systems.

The solution was to get a friend who lives in Limassol to pay for them, and to take out enough cash from ATMs to use to pay for everything during the three-day cruise.

Idiot politicians are idiots.

 

[Mathilda]

Just wondering why they couldn't use the cash out of the ATMs to pay the travel agent.
I agree that the whole thing is idiotic though.