CBS columnist bashes gambling, WSOP

[Bluegrass Poker]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh noes! People have gambling problems!

Of course oh noes, people have alcohol problems or driving fast problems or...

[/ QUOTE ]Alright. How much do I get for hitting the trifecta. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Seriously, I didn't read the article once I saw it mentioned that it was written by Gregg Doyel. He's a complete douche who is always trying to stir [censored] up.

[Dima2000123]

[ QUOTE ]
And I too was dumbfounded at the idea that a sport where people take each others' money is seamier than race-car driving, a sport where people crash into each other frequently, sometimes dying, in an effort to win the most money.

[/ QUOTE ]
Now you're doing some misrepresentation on your own. You don't win money by crashing other people, you win money by finishing first (or as close as you can manage). Crashing is just something that happens occasionally as racers try to accomplish that.

[DJSHAD0W]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
LMFA & ROFL @ 1000$ Life savings (in the US that is.... ).... if you suck that bad at life, gamboling is the least of your worries !!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

right , but if 1000$ is all you have to your name, what on earth would make you take it all to a casino? That doesn't seem like a gambling problem to me, but rather being just plain stupid !!!! (And I have a hard time feeling sorry for people that behave like that. So I think it is safe to assume that they make the same quality decisions in the rest of their lifes) And yes I do feel sympathetic towards people that get into tough spots by acts of god / accidents... but those are not the type of people that take life savings to Casions....

.... but then on second thought.... maybe that is part of the gamboling problem.. I really don't know anymore (and will just STFU)

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

What an idiot. Its not just that he equates poker to all other forms of gambling, its just that he assumes that the MAJORITY of people who gamble are degenerates who lose their paychecks.

I'm sure you could make the same argument about alcohol (College kids wasting time/dropping out, lives being ruined, etc.) The problem is, gambling is no more likely to lead to catastrophic bad behavior than drinking. smoking, or eating high fat foods.

Yeah, Vegas has a dark side. Stop the friggin' presses! Who with a brain doesn't know that? No mention of the downside of gambling during the broadcasts? Has he not seen the 'responsible gambling" spots? Are those pap and filler? Sure, but no more than the "drink responsibly" segments from breweries or the Surgeon General's warnings on cigarettes.

Bad enough we have holy roller politicians fighting freedom, now we have ignorant sportswriters, too. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Terrapin Soup]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And I too was dumbfounded at the idea that a sport where people take each others' money is seamier than race-car driving, a sport where people crash into each other frequently, sometimes dying, in an effort to win the most money.

[/ QUOTE ]
Now you're doing some misrepresentation on your own. You don't win money by crashing other people, you win money by finishing first (or as close as you can manage). Crashing is just something that happens occasionally as racers try to accomplish that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dude, that was what I meant. Not to split hairs, but I thought it was made clear that crashing is a side-effect of the effort, not its whole. If not, my bad.

[J.C. Gloves]

I agree with the 3rd to last paragraph he wrote, but I don't agree with his overall lumping of poker in with the rest of gambling. Problems occur, addictions arise but it cannot all be poker's fault.

[jimmytrick]

Mass behavioral manipulation in the guise of saving us from ourselves. The funny thing is that this guy doesn't understand that he is nothing more than a tool himself. We live in a society in which all of our institutions work hand in hand to protect and foster order and stability for the benefit of those who have power and money. Its pretty clever. Works a lot better than force.

The WSOP entrants are the type of folks who scare the hell out of the establishment because they are risk takers. The spirit of these people is remarkably similar to that of the founding fathers, who elbowed aside the British nobility for their slice of the pie.

Ironically, the decendants of those "patriots" are among those who now wish to supress the behavior exhibited in Vegas along with <font color="red"> any other</font> nonconformist activity.

Ever wonder why?

If there is anything I am sure of, its not to protect us.

Shuffle up and deal.

[stan1541]

So I looked up how many golf courses there are in America, 16944. You figure that its 50$ for a round of golf and most golf addicts probably spend 1k a year on gear and golf at least every week. Thats about 3k a year, for someone to enjoy the game or try to become a professional. At 100 addicts per course thats 5 Billion dollars spent on golf each year.

And I bet less than 1% of golfers have every made a dime from playing.

How is this a more respectable hobby than poker?

[SmileyEH]

"The freedom to gamble is like the freedom to smoke crack or inject herion."

Right on, I have no disagreements.

[idrinkcoors]

Interesting sidebar: the current chipleader, Jon Moonves, is the brother of CBS CEO Les Moonves.

Clearly Les should fire this employee. Just kidding. I'm a newspaper columnist, so freedom of speech rules.

Edit to give credit to poker biz for this info.