CBS columnist bashes gambling, WSOP

[dozer]

link

Thought you guys would enjoy tearing this one to shreds. I found a bunch of stuff that was unfair/inaccurate. Perhaps he's a moralist, or he's just a loser at poker. Or both.

[True North]

I don't even know where to start.

[ImOnWheels]

megadooosh

[dozer]

FYI ... there's a message board under his column. Just noticed it myself. Flames ON!

[Foucault]

The guy's clearly an idiot and too quick to conflate poker with slots, but his central point about the drawbacks of gambling (including poker) is an important one that doesn't get enough attention among the professional poker community, in my opinion.

[NHFunkii]

[ QUOTE ]
The guy's clearly an idiot and too quick to conflate poker with slots, but his central point about the drawbacks of gambling (including poker) is an important one that doesn't get enough attention among the professional poker community, in my opinion.

[/ QUOTE ]

agreed
if you guys think poker isnt just as capable of ruining lives as any other form of gambling, you're wrong
of course I vehemently oppose banning it just because of that and I disagree with the main point of his article, but that doesn't mean that gambling addiction isnt a huge problem and that poker doesnt contribute to it.

[Matt Flynn]

He has a point.

[Bullrun]

message board time....

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
He has a point.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, he doesn't. There's a good point that could be made, i.e. that even amidst the over the top spectacle / celebration of poker that is the WSOP we should still recognize that gambling addiction is a serious problem for some people and that poker can be that gambling addiction for some players.

But instead he's making this point:

[ QUOTE ]
Freedom to gamble is like freedom to inhale crack or inject heroin. You may enjoy it once or twice or a hundred times. You may be that one unlikely person impervious to its evil lure. But in most cases the addiction will eventually win.

Every day around the country, people -- regular people like you or me -- lose their job or home or car or wife or kids or all of the above because they cannot stop gambling. Regular people go to jail. Regular people commit suicide. Because of gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

And that's not much of a point at all. I have no doubt that Vegas simply could not exist as a gambling city if it was only some rare freak that could gamble but avoid the life ruinning gambling addiction and that the vast majority of gamblers became life destroyed addicts. In fact, as we know, gambling addiction is the exception rather than the rule.

--Zetack

[True North]

Just as correct, perhaps more so:

[ QUOTE ]
Freedom to drink is like freedom to inhale crack or inject heroin. You may enjoy it once or twice or a hundred times. You may be that one unlikely person impervious to its evil lure. But in most cases the addiction will eventually win.

Every day around the country, people -- regular people like you or me -- lose their job or home or car or wife or kids or all of the above because they cannot stop drinking. Regular people go to jail. Regular people commit suicide. Because of drinking.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could replace "gambling" with a hundred other words, too. Where are the author's righteous crusades against all those things?