Sunk Cost wrote:BubbaTee wrote:Sunk Cost wrote:
Well, you're also working for the mob, and probably making them way more money than you're giving to those kids. Fixing games also effectively takes even more money from gamblers who should have won those bets, and wrongfully gives bad gamblers an inflated ego. All of these should be very serious even to Robin Hood's biggest supporters.
Why does fixing games require working for the mob? Not all crime is organized.
And starving kids vs sports gamblers?
Really?
The #1 rule of gambling is you only bet what you're prepared to lose. Those gamblers can afford to lose that money. The starving kids can't afford to miss dinner.
Well you're working for someone who you're convinced has enough money to deliver 400k-700k per year, and isn't afraid to rig a major sports league. They would have to be very powerful, and chances are that they already guilty of some serious crimes if they don't mind risking the consequences of being discovered. It's not an air-tight assumption since this is hypothetical, but more likely than not the money would be going to a very powerful criminal.
I just think adding the whole Mafia element tilts the question away from a "would you cheat?" issue and more towards a "would you work for a bad person?" issue.
If the financier of the whole thing is a Mafia boss who's paying me in blood money, I might be willing to fix games for him, simply based on who he is. But I also might not be willing to wash dishes at his restaurant either, simply based on who he is.
As for the gamblers, ideally most of them should be able to afford their losses. There's still going to be a gargantuan amount of winnings misplaced on each game compared to the $10000 that would be donated.
What if I donated the entire $400k-700k that the OP says I would get?
Donating other people's money is generally frowned upon even if the amount being taken were remotely close to the amount being given, so on this scale making that decision would be extremely unpalatable by any non-radical standard.
Every year the government takes a bunch of my money and gives it to other people: cops, firefighters, soldiers, teachers, etc.
I don't want to say society would definitely be better or worse off without putting too much thought into it, but a massive amount of people would be getting routinely screwed for a relatively small benefit. It wouldn't personally offend me too much if the whole mob boss thing wasn't going on, but I'm not that big a gambler and world hunger has always bummed me out.
The people getting screwed would be the ones who are more able to afford the financial loss. The people being helped are the ones who are more in need.
And it's not like I'm robbing the gamblers. Every gambler knows there's a possibility they might lose the money they bet.
