House Committee to Hold Internet Gambling Hearing 6/8

[Truthiness24]

I subscribe to Reason. You should too.

[THAY3R]

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Our hobby/passion/profession does have an unfortunate underside. It's wise to respect our opponents, as there's a bit of truth on all sides.

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No, not really, unless you want to argue for banning alcohol, cigarrettes,etc. Heck even independent thinking and entrepeneurship should be banned!.

"Buy a store kicked to the floor."

[TheEngineer]

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Oh great, Pastor Greg Hogan is the father of the idiot kid at Lehigh who robbed a bank to pay his gambling debts. I'm sure he can blame that on Internet gambling vs. crappy parenting.

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You know, while I would agree that poor parenting is by far a more relevant factor, it is good to remember that the other side does have some legitimate points. Families do get hurt by these guys who can't control their gambling.

Anybody remember 2+2's own Cero, the self-described "pro player" and respected poster on the strategy forums? He donked away the family savings when his hot streak ended: http://www.slate.com/id/2144866/. Cero's wife and kids were innocent victims; they did nothing wrong.

Our hobby/passion/profession does have an unfortunate underside. It's wise to respect our opponents, as there's a bit of truth on all sides.

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I understand what you're saying, but the religious right's using of gambling as an excuse (or even as a reasonable cause) to knock off a bank has no more validity than do any of the other myriad excuses criminals give for committing crimes. Funny thing is that you don't hear voices from the right trying to excuse criminals who say they were abused as children, for example.

These people are wonderful with "personal responsibility" and "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps", but they turn 180 degrees here. Quite amusing. By the way, I agree with the "bootstap" argument. It's the hypocracy I disagree with.

[whangarei]

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Our hobby/passion/profession does have an unfortunate underside. It's wise to respect our opponents, as there's a bit of truth on all sides.

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The fact that some people hurt themselves gambling is true, but in no way is it a valid argument in support of prohibition. People can hurt themselves in pretty much any activity if they do not act responsibly.

[frommagio]

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You know, while I would agree that poor parenting is by far a more relevant factor, it is good to remember that the other side does have some legitimate points. Families do get hurt by these guys who can't control their gambling.

Anybody remember 2+2's own Cero, the self-described "pro player" and respected poster on the strategy forums? He donked away the family savings when his hot streak ended: http://www.slate.com/id/2144866/. Cero's wife and kids were innocent victims; they did nothing wrong.

Our hobby/passion/profession does have an unfortunate underside. It's wise to respect our opponents, as there's a bit of truth on all sides.

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Guys (you last 3 or 4 posters) - obviously I want legal poker everywhere, of course! I'm not saying that our opponents are correct - all I'm saying is that we should try to respect them, and understand their motivations. They may be fuzzy thinkers, but they truly believe they are doing good.

There's a grain of truth that sustains them. It's too late for us to help Cero and his family, but if we knew then what we know now - don't you think that we would have tried to help him as a community? Of course we would have, he was one of us. Think of his poor family!

That's our opponents' motivation, but they wrongly think that the government needs to protect all of us from ourselves. They're mostly well-meaning folks; they're just not deep thinkers. But we need to understand why they have strength; problem gambling has caused a lot of heartache.

Having said that, let's have our panel roll them 4-1 ... politely!

[whangarei]

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I'm not saying that our opponents are correct - all I'm saying is that we should try to respect them, and understand their motivations. They may be fuzzy thinkers, but they truly believe they are doing good.

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If they are honest about their motivations then fine. I may be wrong but I believe groups like FOF use stories like the pastor's bank robber son as a red herring. I believe their true objection to gambling is that they believe it is inherently a sin of some sort. And they want this country to codify their religious beliefs.

[ekdikeo]

erm, out of curiosity, did Cero's story turn worse? I remember reading that article a long time ago. It ended with what seemed to be a happy ending for everyone.

[Scottyy]

We are looking for "feel-good" stories that may be referenced during this hearing. For example a disabled person that plays online poker for their entertainment, or a soldier in Iraq? We are interested in telling the story of a few players in which online poker is a positive in their life (not just making money). If you know a person that fits what we are looking for please PM me today.

Scotty

[WorkinGuy09]

So someone loses 8 grand online over a period of time(I win and lose every day this amount). That person goes and robs a bank, did this person only take his 8 thousand back? Afer all this is what poker robbed him of, so if poker is responsible for that 8, whats responsible for the amount stolen above that(10s of thousands of dollars)? Can you not lose 8 grand on lottery for a year, this really pisses me off!

[Uglyowl]

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Can you not lose 8 grand on lottery for a year, this really pisses me off!

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I can rattle off a dozen people who lost 10 times that when the tech bubble burst. Alot of those people went through alot of pain too including one guy nearly losing his house.

We all make choices to make everyday and most if aren't done correctly could cost us dearly.