Comments from a more macro angle
1. "We Play Because We Can Win in the Long Run"
Not as a group. As a group, poker involves a net transfer of funds from the players to the operators and their suppliers. (This may be socially useful in its own right as a means to accumulate capital in more productive hands for investment elsewhere.)
2. We Play Online to Save Money
I like this one, as well as the time efficiency and travel one, because it highlights the efficiency of online gaming in delivering the services the market demands. No need to travel or pay for brick & mortar operations, an online game is much more cost effective, in terms of transaction costs.
3. Some real stretches which would be better dropped....
The social utility of problem online gambling ???
"....at least if she had been playing online she would have been home with her kids...."
Gambling = drinking premise ... so online means fewer drunk drivers on the road ?? This seems a stretch. I think the FREE booze handed out in Las Vegas 24/7 may account for a seemingly higher incidence of drunk driving there. However, the gambling is incidental to the drinking activity for those people.
|