Whether the operators of mining farms have mens rea is a matter for criminal courts. No one tried to sue them yet, perhaps no one will. Perhaps some aspiring DA will try. Who knows.
That doesn't change the fact they run the scam.
I wrote this up before but here it comes: if there's an empty room and a few people come, play a few rounds of a card game and then leave and the room is empty then it is obvious the sum of their money couldn't change. Some won, some lost but the sum is the same. This is called a zero sum game. If they decide to use plastic chips during the game and only use real money in the beginning and the end, nothing has changed.
However, if someone takes a cut every time the chips are being moved around then that person is guaranteed to win and the players in total are guaranteed to lose and a game where we know who wins without knowing anything about the game is quite obviously a scam.
Your only way to win is to hype up the game and sell your chips to an outsider who will now sit on an even bigger loss. Might not be realized yet but it is there.
That doesn't change the fact they run the scam.
I wrote this up before but here it comes: if there's an empty room and a few people come, play a few rounds of a card game and then leave and the room is empty then it is obvious the sum of their money couldn't change. Some won, some lost but the sum is the same. This is called a zero sum game. If they decide to use plastic chips during the game and only use real money in the beginning and the end, nothing has changed.
However, if someone takes a cut every time the chips are being moved around then that person is guaranteed to win and the players in total are guaranteed to lose and a game where we know who wins without knowing anything about the game is quite obviously a scam.
Your only way to win is to hype up the game and sell your chips to an outsider who will now sit on an even bigger loss. Might not be realized yet but it is there.