[Dunkman]

Ok, so here's my view on this, for what it's worth. First, let's not get too high and mighty about poker. Our ROI (in my case about 90% in small and a few mid tourneys, in your guys cases 120% in high tourneys) comes from a few places. For a 120% ROI, after rake, you have to figure there's 5 or 6 -30 to -40 ROI guys in the tournament. Now, some of those people have money to burn and it's just an expense for recreation, and some of those people are going seriously in debt (read losing house, property, family, etc.) chasing losses and looking for that one big score. Yes, in every big score you make, part of it comes from some guy's house that he gambled away. Now, I personally am fine with that. I'm don't feel responsible for other people deciding to do that, and I think people should be free to gamble their house away if that's what they choose to do. I have had people come up to me and disagree with my ethics on the issue. There were many reason why the UIGEA passed, and although some of the claims of ethics were mere convenience, there were also a lot of people that felt this way as well, and that helped the legislation pass.

A couple years ago my father-in-law passed away and left behind an estate that was/is pretty substantial from just about anyone's point of view (thinly veiled brag obv.) He had been caring for his wife and got sick right after her death. He had neglected his affairs, and didn't have time to legally shield his assets from the estate tax laws, so what he did was put the money in an annuity in a partnership owned by his children, and got his Oncologist to say he had over a year to live when he actually lived just 4 more months (he was also a M.D. and they were friends.) We just recently learned that the IRS would not challenge his estate, so it worked. Again, I am ok with this, because I think a law that taxes money that has already been taxed is just ridiculous, and I'm sure the fact that I benefit from it greatly plays a large part as well.

People multi-accounting pisses me off, but not because I give a [censored] about the ethics of people I play poker against. It upsets me because 1) it negatively affects my ROI (this is much more of an issue for you guys, but stay with me) and 2) it threatens the future of a game which I enjoy playing and make at least some money at. I am pissed at people who do this, but I don't look down on them. It is against the rules and I hope they get caught and punished. I personally wouldn't want to have anything to do with people who do this sort of thing, but that's a decision for people to make themselves. My reasoning for that is not some ethical difference, but simply from the fact that I don't want to be around people that are doing things to hurt me and/or the things I love. Anyway, I think this debate would be a lot more productive if it was about hurting the game and not the ethical code that we should all live by.