Against Bookmakers

One of my acquaintances asked me to express my opinion on bookmakers, which have recently flourished in Kazakhstan. He is actively fighting against betting shops because he considers them to be an absolute evil. Moreover, he himself has suffered from them: his son is addicted to gambling and has spent significant amounts of money from the family budget, practically bankrupting the family.

In fact, I agree with my friend and sincerely believe that bookmakers are parasites on the body of society. They bring no benefit to the country and only make huge amounts of money from people’s addictions.

But… the reason I do not advocate for their ban is that in my hierarchy of values, personal freedom comes first. I believe that each person should decide for themselves how to live, how to spend their money, and how to spend their time. Society should not impose restrictions on people out of concern for them.

Similarly, I consider alcohol, tobacco, and drugs to be evil, and I think it is incredibly foolish to voluntarily ruin your health with them for your own money. But I do not propose a legal ban on the use of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs. Let people decide for themselves whether to take care of their health or to lose it due to foolish addictions. It is their health, their life.

The only thing I can allow myself is to have my own opinion on various phenomena and actively speak out about them.

So, I believe that betting is a harmful phenomenon for the individual. It subconsciously sends the wrong message to the brain that you can get rich without working, without creating new values for society, but simply thanks to luck. Even if a player gets lucky a couple of times and wins some money, luck cannot last long. Tomorrow the money will run out. What to do then? Hope for luck again? Play again? Pull money out of the family budget, steal, rob? This is a path to ruin.

I hope at least one person will think about my words.