Re #1 - the customers in OPs contemplation would have already committed the funds to be donated and prospective wins would inure to the benefit of charities. So it isn’t clear to me that the same typical harm applies (if you buy the premise that gamblers are net harmed by gambling). There wouldn’t be the circumstance where the gambler feels they need to win it back—because they’ve already lost the money when they committed it to the DAF.
Re #2 - this could produce a good experience for customers—donating money to charities while playing games. And with how OP set it up, they know what they are losing (unlike with a typical casino there’s that hope of winning it big).
Re #3 - for the reasons discussed above, the predatory and deceptive implications are less significant here. Unlike when someone takes money to a slot machine in a typical casino, when they put the money in the DAF they no longer have a chance of “getting it back”
Re #4 - yeah there might be some bad pr. But if people liked this and substituted it for normal gambling, it probably would be less morally problematic for the reasons discussed above.
Re #5 - I’m not really sure that this business is as morally corrosive as you suggest… It’s potentially disadvantaging the gambler’s preferred charity to the casino’s, but not by much, and not without the gambler’s knowledge.
Re #6 - the gamblers could choose the charities that are the beneficiaries of their DAF. And I don’t know that enjoying gambling means that you wouldn’t like to see kids saved from malaria and such.
I think your criticisms would better apply to a straight Profit for Good casino (normal casino with charities as shareholder). The concerns you bring up are some reasons I think a PFG casino, though an interesting idea, would not be a place I’d be looking to do as an early, strategic PFG (also big capital requirements).
OP’s proposal is much more wholesome and actually addresses a lot more of the ethical concerns. I just think people may not be interested in gambling as much if there was not the prospect of winning money for themselves.
Re #1 - the customers in OPs contemplation would have already committed the funds to be donated and prospective wins would inure to the benefit of charities. So it isn’t clear to me that the same typical harm applies (if you buy the premise that gamblers are net harmed by gambling). There wouldn’t be the circumstance where the gambler feels they need to win it back—because they’ve already lost the money when they committed it to the DAF.
Re #2 - this could produce a good experience for customers—donating money to charities while playing games. And with how OP set it up, they know what they are losing (unlike with a typical casino there’s that hope of winning it big).
Re #3 - for the reasons discussed above, the predatory and deceptive implications are less significant here. Unlike when someone takes money to a slot machine in a typical casino, when they put the money in the DAF they no longer have a chance of “getting it back”
Re #4 - yeah there might be some bad pr. But if people liked this and substituted it for normal gambling, it probably would be less morally problematic for the reasons discussed above.
Re #5 - I’m not really sure that this business is as morally corrosive as you suggest… It’s potentially disadvantaging the gambler’s preferred charity to the casino’s, but not by much, and not without the gambler’s knowledge.
Re #6 - the gamblers could choose the charities that are the beneficiaries of their DAF. And I don’t know that enjoying gambling means that you wouldn’t like to see kids saved from malaria and such.
I think your criticisms would better apply to a straight Profit for Good casino (normal casino with charities as shareholder). The concerns you bring up are some reasons I think a PFG casino, though an interesting idea, would not be a place I’d be looking to do as an early, strategic PFG (also big capital requirements).
OP’s proposal is much more wholesome and actually addresses a lot more of the ethical concerns. I just think people may not be interested in gambling as much if there was not the prospect of winning money for themselves.