2. I used to work in the gaming industry too (not slots). If you're on the other side you just realize in the long run gambling is a losing proposition so you won't be pursuing the activity as hard. Also that job is a consistent stream of income.
3. Yes, but they are designed to be as addictive as possible. I'm quite appalled by online slots (Android, iPhone) where no money is at stake, but coins can be purchased, and the amount of coins purchasable is adjusted based on how much you play. I'm thinking Zynga based games primarily.
5. That's fair but a weak argument. 100% of people who go to the theatre or eat out spend money, but the amount is fixed and known up front. I guess you can say the same for slots when the payout percentage is up front, but still, Vegas wasn't built by giving away money.
Pretty much this. This story is a bit click-baity with the details summarized as a comedy of errors. I love Matier and Ross as much as anyone else, but they really should have dove into this more. It's absurdly silly if SF had no contact with any of the residents of 30 years and just out of the blue decided to auction the rights to the street.
As for the winner, kudos to him. Now he'll either settle for a significant amount of court, or mired in years of civil trial.
Is there anytime similar about the 1-2.5% fee merchants have to pay to utilize this service? I'd bet Visa, MasterCard, and AMEX are making a fortune off all these transactions.
Why does the government even pay companies to manage and rehabilitate student loans? Even if a student defaults on said debt, that debt is practically impossible to discharge even if you file for bankruptcy.
Oh damn, then it's just opening short/long term trading to a new segment of people that wouldn't otherwise do it. That's like 100% casino/poker bonuses during the poker boom.
What's the long play then? Surely Robin Hood isn't absorbing the the transaction fees as a loss leader just to increase it's user base? If that's the play, any other company can emulate that.. The incentive seems to be this may cause a price war with existing brokerages.
A friend of mine accidentally pushed his Heroku or New Relic API key to a toy repo which was public and that information was immediately scraped and used. He was billed a non trivial about which he disputed but cost some time and headache.
Enforce best practices and don't do that even if it's for something trivial and won't have real world consequences.
3. Yes, but they are designed to be as addictive as possible. I'm quite appalled by online slots (Android, iPhone) where no money is at stake, but coins can be purchased, and the amount of coins purchasable is adjusted based on how much you play. I'm thinking Zynga based games primarily.
5. That's fair but a weak argument. 100% of people who go to the theatre or eat out spend money, but the amount is fixed and known up front. I guess you can say the same for slots when the payout percentage is up front, but still, Vegas wasn't built by giving away money.