The challenge with gambling is that it exposes the developers of the software to more risk than just about any other thing we could write.
Thanks for the reply, completely understandable but obviously a pity.
This might not be relevant, I don't speak code, but it seems Vitalik is writing gambling related code for Ethereum...
https://m.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/3kwsaf/if_you_are_going_to_be_building_gambling_sites/
https://github.com/ethereum/dapp-bin/blob/master/serpent_gamble/prepare.py
I guess the difference is it's then up to third parties to implement it.
Vitalik can get away with that because Ethereum is general purpose. Bitshares is specifically a financial platform though and mixing gambling and finance in the same interface is crazy stupid.
Why not integrate Silk Road into the interface so high frequency traders can keep up their supply of cocaine?
Sometimes it's just not worth it to build something directly on Bitshares or to have the developers associated with certain things. It's not that I'm against gambling but I just think if you want gambling there is a DAC Play blockchain specifically set up to take on these sorts of risks. I don't see why all risk should be centralized on Bitshares if Bitshares is the most critical blockchain, the mother blockchain.
Why not take the risks on the chains which were set up specifically for these sorts of experiments?
Here is the law in China
Whoever, for the purpose of profit, gathers people to engage in gambling, runs a gambling house or makes gambling his profession shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined.
Is it worth killing Bitshares in China? China is the main market for Bitshares and you want to poison that market with gambling so regulators can have every excuse they need to go after witnesses and even users?
Unlike Ethereum which is general purpose and have many types of apps, Bitshares is only finance, and as soon as you associate it with gambling you make it very easy to ban. If those associations are to be made, why would you want to have the core developers make that association by building a casino right beside the stock market?
Imagine you're some Chinese politician or regulator and you're using Bitshares for the first time, introduced to Bitshares because of crowd funding or the stocks, and you see a casino built into it? It's one thing to have an ad for a casino which is a separate third party operation, but it's something else completely to build it into the interface itself. If it must be decentralized, use the DAC Play blockchain and then put the UIA on Bitshares so people can buy it through Bitshares.
Also remember Lottoshares? If it's such a big demand then why aren't people using that?
http://www.onlinebetting.com/legal/china/In order to reduce risks on the developers, witnesses and the blockchain itself all of the topics below should be avoided:
1. Drugs or controlled substances
2. Gambling
3. Bribery
4. Dealing in obscene matter
If individuals want to take their chances with these non-violent but clearly fronwd upon activities then they can create a UIA and do so as a third party (this way the risk is entirely on the people who want to take it). There is no need for a FBA or to bring the whole blockchain into their experiment because by doing that you also spread risk and potentially infect the whole blockchain with police investigations.
Gambling isn't likely to make Bitshares have a 100 billion dollar market cap. If a casino were such a good idea then you'd be using the DAC Play blockchain, or Lottoshares, or Lottoshares, or any of the others. My guess is a casino done they way you'd be thinking about doing it would bring only risks, it wouldn't better the world in any kind of way, or advance liberty in any kind of way, so it's not like prediction markets which actually have some purpose.
Of course I'm not the decision maker, the community is. It's very possible that the majority in the community either don't live in a country like China, or they don't live in the USA, so they might think it's a good idea to do it. I just hope if they go into it that they realize there are cops who don't have anything better to do but to investigate stuff like that.