The best rationalization I've heard for gambling was by Aaron Brown IIRC. Taking the old American West as an example, he said gambling provided utility by allowing capital to be concentrated. Normally a bank or VC would do this, but in the old West, banks could be robbed and no one had much insight on people's business acumen since everyone was transient. Capital formation was needed to do large projects, for example setting up a general store or mine. No one individually could do much besides hold their few coins, but if they won the rest of the town's money then they could build something bigger, benefiting everyone.
Reminds me of a similar argument I heard for the main benefits of crypto so far. It has made a lot of young and heterodox people wealthy so they could make bets on things that older, less weird people wouldn’t.
The best rationalization I've heard for gambling was by Aaron Brown IIRC. Taking the old American West as an example, he said gambling provided utility by allowing capital to be concentrated. Normally a bank or VC would do this, but in the old West, banks could be robbed and no one had much insight on people's business acumen since everyone was transient. Capital formation was needed to do large projects, for example setting up a general store or mine. No one individually could do much besides hold their few coins, but if they won the rest of the town's money then they could build something bigger, benefiting everyone.
Reminds me of a similar argument I heard for the main benefits of crypto so far. It has made a lot of young and heterodox people wealthy so they could make bets on things that older, less weird people wouldn’t.