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Any bookmaking or loan-sharking that went on was wrong.
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Agree.
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Well I disagree. Bookmaking is illegal but not wrong, in my opinion. Loansharking (usury) I'm not clear on. What is its exact definition as distinct from banking loans or credit card loans?
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The difference is when you default on your bank loan, a young telemarketer type calls you and tells you that your payment is late. When you default to a loanshark, he shows up with a bat at your house, to assault you in front of your wife and kids. Maybe two guys will use a pair of plyers on your thumb, etc. Get it?
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you have watched too many movies. Yes this can happen, but thats the extreme example.
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I cannot believe how this thread has gotten derailed.
FYI the term usuary means..
Usury (/'juʒ(&#601
ɹi/, from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest", from Latin usura "interest") was defined originally as charging a fee for the use of money. This usually meant interest on loans, although charging a fee for changing money (as at a bureau de change) is included in the original meaning. After moderate-interest loans were made more easily available usury became an accepted part of the business world in the early modern age. Today, the word has come to refer to the charging of unreasonable or relatively high rates of interest