[DVaut1]

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If you are talking about under-age people accessing poker sites, they can also access porn sites. There's no way to prevent that technically (Side note: I am a CS PhD). There are technical limitations to how you can verify identity online.

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Yes, I understand under-age people can access porn sites, and I understand the difficulty in preventing underage access to gambling sites. It's also difficult for regular B&M casinos to prevent underage players from playing; it's an empirical reality that sometimes underage players get in and play poker or pit games in B&M casinos. However, none of this really has anything to do with the claims I'm making here.

I don't think there's any reasonable person expects sites to prevent all underage players from playing, but similarly, it's a black eye for the sites if they don't try to proactively prevent it. Think of your local liquor store claiming they won't bother checking IDs anymore (checking ID = procedure to maintain legal standards) because they're sure at some point, someone under 21 will eventually scam them with a fake ID or something. The online gaming industry will never win the US legalization battle by throwing up their hands and claiming they're powerless to stop underage players, even if it's largely true.

From an ethical standpoint, no one should really want to be playing under 18s. But from a purely self-interested stand-point, no one with an interest in making poker a reputable activity should want to be stacking 15 year olds for hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash games, or busting 16 year olds out of the Super Tuesday bought into with Mommy's credit card. That winning, skilled under 18 players like JJprodigy exist shouldn't really be relevant here. If the community wants to self-police to demonstrate how we're not actually a bunch of degenerate low-lifes, not playing with teenagers would be a good start.