Tidbit from Asia -- The South China Morning Post reports today that critics of the SAR's newly legal soccer betting are asking that betting slips be stamped with a warning label akin to the warning on cigarette packages. Hong Kong's Rehabilitation Centre for Problem Gamblers is suggesting the following phrases to adorn the labels: "Gambling could break up your family," and "Gambling will cause you financial woes." The Christian Coalition Against Soccer Betting is scheduled to presents its argument in favor of the warnings to Home Affairs Secretary Patrick Ho Chi-ping today.
Quoteworthy -- "But for all the grandstanding and moral posturing, the most important question has been absent from the discussion: Would the market have worked? In other words, would it have improved American intelligence capabilities and enhanced national security? All the evidence suggests that it would have. ... We now have more than a decade of empirical results to back up the idea that 'decision markets' can work, in addition to the reams of data on the efficacy of traditional futures markets, such as those for corn or interest rates."
-- James Surowiecki, writing in Slate.com, July 30, in an article arguing that the Pentagon's Policy Analysis Market should not have been scrapped.