Re: Being told \"professional poker doesn\'t contribute to society.\"
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Anyone who provides a product or service that others are willing to pay for is "contributing" to society. The poker pro is no differant. Their willingness to spend hours at tables that create games and action make it possible for the recreational player to come in and entertain himself. Who knows, maybe the cancer researcher is able to do better research after a few hours relaxing and playing poker and wouldn't have a game if not for the legions of pros that insure readily available games.
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this point would be valid if those games didn't exist anyway, but they do. that might not be true for the highest stakes games, so that point has some validity there. you can also argue that some people like the idea of playing with "pros" and hence the pros contribute to their happiness.
there is some entertainment value in it, but it's extremely small.
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