People think they can have a LITTLE bit of a Nanny State. You can’t sacrifice the principle that the government is in charge and then complain when they get around to your behavior.
“Vice” is an interesting and fluid concept. Is cigarette smoking a “vice”? What about drinking alcohol or gambling? Do we call these “vices” because we believe they are morally wrong according to some absolute standard, or because of their potential bad results for ourselves and others?
Of the items mentioned, it seems to me that alcohol-drinking has the most general bad effects for the public. The harms from alcohol-fueled stupid behavior, especially driving, are obvious and very common. The bad effects of smoking, on the other hand, are limited to the smoker and perhaps those who live in close quarters with him. For others, the negative impact is aesthetic - not wanting to smell smoke or smokers. Gambing is something else again: even a person gambing to excess or very unwisely is probably not going to wrap his car around a tree, unless he was also drinking.
Then we have the issue of the government’s declaring these activities to be “vices,” but having to promoted them in order to generate tax revenue from them. If gambling is a “vice,” why are the states spending our tax money to promote the “Education Lottery”? Isn’t that immoral, especially since we know that the most enthusiastic purchasers of lottery tickets are those who can least afford it?