Out of Control

Over on Hit & Run Jacob skewers silly rules to make casino's save gamblers from themselves.

By the logic of the Illinois Gaming Commission, liquor stores, donut shops, and porn purveyors also could be forced to keep track of their customers to make sure none of them is prone to excess and regret.

In October Shikha attended the conference of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and point out that "In the end, it is not the social effects but the ethos of gambling that opponents raised in a more risk-averse, moral universe hate."

In the moral universe of gambling opponents, casinos' behavior is even more exploitative. It is designed to hook people on a product that, one speaker at the NCLA conference claimed, is "as addictive as cigarettes." What's more, according to another speaker, some people have a predisposition for gambling because their brains produce more dopamine and serotonin.

A single visit to the casino will turn these genetic suckers into permanent addicts and the casino freebies are all part of a plot to rope the dopes.

But the facts do not support these claims.