Remember the Vice Squad on Dragnet and every other cop series on early TV? They enforced the morals laws against things like gambling, drugs, and prostitution. The laws originally came right out of the Bible, but the legal justification shifted to public health, after separation of church and state gained legal currency. Turns out the government public health interest in protecting people from themselves softens if the government can make money from what was formally defined as a human weakness. Marijuana is on the way to legalization because it is a tax bonanza. Some New York legislators want to legalize prostitution, and if that takes off, expect a tax argument (government as pimp.) But probably the most blatant example is state lotteries where state agencies specifically target low income people with gambling addictions because that's where the money is. My question: if we decide public health doesn't justify government policing citizens' morals, how is the next logical step that government should legislate a monopoly so they can make money off of human weakness? Yeah, government has always collected a big" sin tax" on things like booze and smoking, on the argument higher prices reduces harmful behavior, but at least there, the government isn't out encouraging people to smoke and drink more. (And buried somewhere in here is an income inequality argument.)