State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities, investigation finds

Re:State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities,... by cat_plus_plus on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @12:25AM (#32065639)

Mob, let alone legal casino operators, would never get away with such ridiculous margins. Even organized crime faces competition from unorganized crime, your neighbor's home poker game will probably have a pretty low rake.

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Re:State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities,... by riffraff on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @12:45AM (#32065748)

When I was a kid sport betting was illegal in Italy, and almost everyone I knew played illegal sport bets.

But we also had legal national Lotto[0], and _illegal_ Lotto betting with about the same margins.

And when sport betting got legalized, the odds given where about the same as the illegal one, until the latter de facto disappeared.

So, I'm not sure the mob would not get away with Lottery margins.

[0] the traditional Italian lotto is a betting game: you bet that 1-5 numbers will come out of an extraction, but it's up to you to choose how risky a bet and how much you bet, e.g. getting one number pays 11:1, 3 numbers gives you a 4500:1 etc

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Re:State lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities,... by pmontra on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @02:17AM (#32066275)

We had Totocalcio too. Btw, I didn't know anybody betting on sport results but I remember the TV talking about that. Interesting bits at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Totonero

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