Re: serious question
This is a serious question, I am trying to construct some talking points to present lawmakers at all levels of government.
Would you:
Allow you allow multitabling? Yes
How many? 2, 4, 8, Unlimited? 4. With a variety of different types of play (MTT, SNG, Omaha v. HE, etc.), seems unreasonable to only allow one game at a time. However, concentrated multi-tabling (8, 10, 12, etc.) gives off a veneer of being a boiler room holding a handful of sharks just looking for victims, and gives a bad perception to outsiders of online poker.
Allow unlimited datamining? Absolutely not. Poker is a game of limited information and skill, and was not built on being able to download stats as a bot while away from your keyboard, just so you know the "correct" play in any situtation regardless of the fact you've never sat down with that player. It's inappropriate that you should be able to know how someone you've never played with before, played their last 3000 hands of $2/4. And, frankly, if you're trying to sell poker as a game of skill, that, by definition, is an argument against datamining.
Restrict hand histories to hands in which the player was dealt cards? - Yes, please see above. This isn't the WSOP on TV for entertainment. You don't get your own pocket cam, so to speak.
Allow PAHUD? Forbid PAHUD type programs. - Forbid PAHUD unless and until it's incorporated directly into the site's software. A tech savvy shark shouldn't get to have yet an additional advantage over Joe Goldfish just becuase he's read 2+2 and knows there are plug in software pieces out there. And that's not how you actually become a talented poker player. Also, see argument above on datamining, generally.
Show table statistics in the lobby like % players to the flop, average size of pot? - Sure, because everyone on the site has equal access to that information from the get go, and it's no different than, say, observing a couple live tables in a casino, while you try to decide where to sign up. Perfectly reasonable.
Have a "buddy" list? Forbid a "buddy" list and take steps to prevent one being used? - There is nothing wrong with buddy lists, or a way to find tables of players you've done well off before, provided it's built directly into the interface, where everyone can use it. Again, it's no different that scounting a couple of known fish at the felt and trying to get a seat at that table.
Have tight requirements on time to act, or be liberal? - I'd prefer a bit of a sliding time scale...if your FT in a big MTT, with lots of stake, I don't think you should only have 30-45 seconds or whatever to make a decision. As the stakes (or stages in a tourney) go up, players should be able to take a bit more time, but only a reasonable amount.
Allow players to transfer funds, or forbid it? - Free market economy. If it can be done safely and securely, there's no reason why this should be forbidden.
Allow players to buy in with credit cards, or allow only debit cards or transfers from the dozens of e-wallets? - Players should be be allowed to buy in with credit cards, or with other money they do not already have. If you don't have it, you don't have it to gamble with. Is your offline bookie up in Brooklyn gonna take your MasterCard after he layed you 10 points on the Dolphins, and you lost? Or will he just break your legs. We're trying to fight against perceptions of gamboooling problems here, not help feed those perceptions. And, frankly, knowing how many college students are funding their PS accounts with college loans, and such, I don't want my tax dollars to have to go bail out your a$$es when you default on your student loans after going busto.
BTW, I am disgusted with how little the PPA has done, while I can do plenty in my spare time. -- Sorta agreed, though I don't have a stake in the PPA. Their "update" was nothing more than a fluff message, designed to try to throw off the questions. In the meantime, they have no actual stated plan or tactics, only a goal of some nebulous form of protecting poker. No thanks. Players are not their constituency, only the businesses who make their living off the players.
Thanks for posting this. Thought provoking.
(PS -- before the haters snark at me for my stance on PT/PAHUD/etc., I don't personally care whether you use it or not, though if you have to rely on PAHUD to tell you how to react to my raise, then you really can't claim poker to be a game of skill, can you? Not when it's a game of plug-in downloads and data-mining. And I do recognize where PT can help a player identify their own leaks.)
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