eureka

I can't see it over there, I assume this whole reply chain doesn't get federated to them because I started it. But I don't know how mentions work so I'm curious too.

https://aussie.zone/post/21229070

Some fake vote manipulation instances were spun up last month and apparently I'd downvoted some of the same posts that were getting brigaded (see Quokka's reply) so a lemmy.world admin jumped the gun and banned me for "Vote manipulation". I haven't had the time to bother appealing the ban since I didn't post to there often anyway, but I didn't realise that a few of their users post here and wouldn't see my replies so I'll send .world a message about it tomorrow or so.

Just realised OP can't see my post on .world, so if you found this interesting I'd appreciate if you share this link with them: https://aussie.zone/comment/17588950

Thanks for sharing, definitely a huge leap from our situation over here. Monthly loss limits seem so obvious as an anti-addiction measure but I hadn't thought or heard of it.

As for the argument a Norwegian policy researcher quickly raises on personal liberties of citizens and which the US section expands on, I don't believe that applies well to machines designed to exploit human psychology to form addictions. Addiction is contradictory to liberty, it coerces a person to pressure them into a decision they likely would not make otherwise:

In 2007, the government ordered the removal of all slot machines that had been operating in public places. [...] Eidem said gambling support group members would cry with relief “because they were so happy they could go to the store and buy milk and bread without having to fight their way through the hallway with 10 slot machines.”

I think it's also interesting that they bring up this lad:

Gasparim said he doesn’t like to be told how much money he can lose. And he doesn’t appreciate the restrictions over what times he can gamble in Norway, especially since he likes to bet on U.S. ice hockey games that are in a different time zone. So he goes on foreign gambling websites that are illegal in Norway and have no limits at all. “I know that it's not healthy,” Gasparim said. “I could have saved all the money that I've spent all these years, but I do it because I think it's fun.”

[...] Magnus Eidem, the addiction specialist, says the foreign gambling sites are much more likely to lead to gambling disorders than the legal market; the more money people lose through unregulated play, the more they try to gamble it back. That includes young people who find foreign sites before they’re old enough to legally gamble.

So there becomes an element of pragmatic balance: if people feel too limited, they might just jump into fully unregulated territory and suffer more harm than the regulated solution. It's something to be careful of, and something which applies to all kinds of regulation.

Something I didn't see mentioned is that in Norway, the "gambling industry is run almost entirely by the government itself — one of the only countries with a state monopoly". Even casting aside US ideological issues over government ownership of industry, I simply wouldn't trust their current regime to balance, let alone prioritise, public health over corporate interests (profit). With Australia... maybe under Labor? Definitely more confident if Greens have the power to pressure them.

After the on-screen graphics spin for a few moments, the display lets him know he won 30 kroner. But you can hardly tell. There are no bells, no manufactured sounds of coins falling into a steel bowl. “All those sounds are meant to make you play more,” he said.

I recently came across an interactive article (similar to ABCs scrolling graphic articles) about some of the basic psychology and cues behind pokies. Not just triggers like the sounds and graphics, but also some tricks like 'losses disguised as wins':

For example, if you bet three credits on three lines, but only win one credit on one line, you might win back less money than you bet overall. This means you lost money, but because you get the flashing lights and reward from winning, you still get the good feeling of a win.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/sep/28/hooked-how-pokies-are-designed-to-be-addictive [sound warning]

Also relevant, and my account's banner image: FriendlyJordies and Boy Boy collaborated with whistleblower Troy Stolz [omg I didn't know he got elected to council last year!] to make a fun but educational video about laundering in NSW casinos through pokies. How Much Money Can We Launder In A Day?

Horrible stuff. I'm glad no-one was injured, antisemitism has no place here (and attacking a synagogue and the surrounding community is certainly that).

oh yeah nah course we care about *checks notes* US lawmakers and their thoughts. utmost respect for em.

There is an interesting, complex conversation going on between the many different Australian advocacy groups here in the article, it's clearly got a few interesting angles to it. But if one thing is clear, the US lawmakers are not only ignorant of the discussion but incidentally hypocritical (see the Game Industry Council comment on US deer practices). They seem to mean well, in a surprising way, but that's no excuse for professional lawmakers to be so blatantly ignorant. Although, to be honest, I'd be surprised if any conservationist legislation went through their congress under this regime, so I doubt it will pass.

Linking

You should be aware of your speedometer even if you think you can safely drive at a speed...... Especially in urban areas, where I'd assume it's more likely in urban areas for your car will collide with people at no fault of your own, like a kid carelessly running onto the road. Lower speeds make crashes far less dangerous, I wouldn't be surprised at all if five 30kph crashes a month had a significantly lesser fatality rate than one 50kph crash a month.

edit: very relevant, someone else mentioned this video. Amsterdam set their speed limit down to the same 30kph.

What do you think when two organizations you trust say different things?

To be honest, I would have trusted Cancer Council much more than Choice before this news challenged my trust (not because of any particular thing Choice has done). The ABC article today about the Princeton Consumer Research test and allegations of its results being concerningly homogeneous has just made this a bit more complicated.

That last paragraph. Oh my.

I hope the Cancer Council ones are fine.

Hey OP, I noticed at the bottom of the article it credits that it's a republishing of the original article by ABC. Always good to link upstream if you notice that happening, for example the upstream article might notice a mistake and correct it.

give em a good old nwgffo ^[0]^