[excession]

I'm confused by your position.

If you want poker to be allowed than you must believe that it is ethically/morally persimissble.

The fact that certain puritanical elements in the States believe the opposite is pretty much irrelevant to the continued existence and availability of poker in the rest of the world. There is no way that Europe, S. America and Australasia are going to ban it. It's pick up in Asia is also likely to be tremendous given a few years.

The online world is incredibly different to the old-dinosaur age. It's not just drunk tourists/cynical sharks and hopeless gambling addicts any more.

The vast majority of social players (like myself a 40 yr old lawyer) play for the intellectual challenge and fun - I'd never have gone anywhere as seedy as casino in real life (although I probably have 100+ of them within an hour's drive).

I have won maybe $23,000 over the past 3+ years playing a few hours/week.
I would have stayed at smaller stakes if I'd been losing so would never have lost the same amount, but even if I had let's not pretent that that sort of sum over 3+ years is crippling to a partner in a corporate law firm.

The vast majority of poker players do lose online. It isn't 98% though. Winners are probably 10% and breakeven players maybe another 10-20%. Of the 70% of losers most either blow a few hundred $$$ fairly fast and quit or just keep playing for fun at weekends at a level that they can sustain indefinitely.

I have seen figures that 1/3 of adult males 18-30 in the UK have tried online poker. I don't know how many have now had their lives ruined but given how the press would love to go on about it and the numbers involved it really is a vanishly small %.