The US military’s on-base slot machines

They can make all the arguments they want about what "good" this money does. But all I see is its taking people who might be interested in leaving the military after 4 years, and sucking them back in due to debt, or not earning as much money as they thought they could.

Its a underhanded forced recruitment tool.

The article mentions two reasonable reasons for allowing the program (which is about gambling on bases outside of US) to continue.

1. The classic, "people will want to gamble, we may as well control the supply". I think this is generally true. In the US, service members can go off base (when allowed) to gamble in a more or less controlled manner. This program provides the possibility of more or less uniform, controlled access across the globe, regardless of host nation.

2. Revenue funds morale, welfare and recreation activities.

I honestly think point 1 is fair enough. The corrosive element is that it's used for aspect 2 (an alternate approach might be to simply to redistribute money back to the soldiers directly... or just let it go to waste). The challenge is that once someone's funding is coupled to gambling revenue, it compromises its ability to pursue task 1 (which is basically a risk mitigation strategy).

I can't understand why the government has to be so involved in gambling. I'm pretty much okay with the lottery, it's kind of silly thing you can play with friends or coworkers, you pretty much know you're not going to win. But scratch off tickets are worse because it's kind of unlimited. Most people wouldn't blow $100 on lottery tickets, but might on scratch off. There's no delay, just buy immediately to lose. And then they have the apps. Why? Are they really necessary? And to top it off, there's advertisements. It's one thing to say people want to gamble and this is a way to take a reasonable profit and use it to pay for public services. It's quite another to actually try to encourage people to play.

Do we really have to optimize everything?

I wonder if at least part of this is to ensure that the gambling is run by the military, rather than the service members going off base to gamble at places that could be connected to organized crime. Does anyone know if in the countries where this is happening off-based gambling has such connections?

Only way this can be moral is if it were zero profit.

That is, if the machines pay true odds, and the military eats the cost of the machines.

Gambling and other predatory businesses on military bases are gross. MLM's run rampant through military communities by preying on dependents and the tighter social networks formed by military families. Yeah, I know, freedom to make adult decisions and all, but sometimes it's nice to just keep the garbage out in the first place.

The $ argument in favor of this seems a little silly. The $ brought in a millionth of the US military budget.

Think the best argument presented in the piece is just that some non-trivial fraction of soldiers are going to gamble, and its better they do so in a manor controlled by the military then backroom poker games, online, etc.

State lotteries and scratch tickets should be illegal and banned. Every time I go to the deli I'm inevitably waiting behind a (very obviously) poor person blowing their paycheck or welfare check on a dozen lotto and scratch tickets.

https://archive.ph/AJeu6

I disagree with this. High stress environment, already with an alcohol and spending problem (super high interest car loans etc) that in this case: the machines need to go.

But that also challenges a broader trend in games of chance proliferating. In some places, small businesses are pushing hard to allow them to put them in their businesses because they make money.

Gambling is one of those places where I draw the line about freedom of choice and disposition. It's too easy to lose everything, and get suckered in to lose more. It needs stronger regulation because the House never loses, and people who can't control themselves suffer.

For an army that tests for drugs, wants soldiers to be clean when they come in, then they pull this shi*t on them! The level of stupidity and ignorance is staggering. The army doesn’t care about their soldiers. “All I want to say is They don’t really care about us.”

The government shouldn't be in the gambling business at all, neither this nor state lotteries. It creates a perverse incentive where the government starts promoting gambling instead of what they should be doing: promoting services to help gambling addicts recover.

I'm absolutely sick of seeing billboards promoting the lottery as a sound investment, and not only that but suggesting terrible ways people could waste all their winnings instead of putting it away and being financially responsible. It's sickening.

And yes, I know the argument about state lotteries outcompeting "numbers games" run by organized crime. I don't buy this argument, I don't think we're getting any net gain for society. Having connections to organized crime to participate in their gambling schemes is far less accessible than buying lotto tickets at any gas station in the country. This casual accessibility sucks far more people into gambling addictions.