(Revised) Poll: is poker gambling or not?

[ubercuber]

I voted no based on that definition. Skilled players win, poor players lose.

Why gambling is illegal to begin with is beyond me. Alcohol is legal. Lotteries are legal. Butt out of our lives The Man! The people who are losing are typically so far from basic strategy that it is clear they have never bothered to google for tips! They don't care, they are having fun.

[PiedPiper]

Most people use the term "gambling" to mean a game where skill is inconsequential. That is not true with poker.

Why do baseball teams play long seasons and play 5 and 7-game series? Because on any given day, they can be upset and lose. The best teams even go on streaks where they lose 5 of 7 or worse during the regular season (think about a good poker player having 5 of 7 losing sessions!). Yet we don't call baseball "gambling". The best baseball players go on streaks where they go 0 for 10. How many of the best poker players out there have 10 straight losing sessions though? Yet people want to call poker gambling, and call baseball a true competition based on skill.

My conclusion:

1. If poker is gambling, so is baseball.
2. Yet baseball is not gambling.
3. Therefore, poker is not gambling.

[Bob Ciaffone]

Poker is a card game. When it is played for money, it is gambling. Some people play it just for fun. The problem is the law treats all gambling games the same, whereas a game that is only between the players should be treated somewhat differently than a gambling game against the house.

[b33nz]

If you would be a 99% favorite... You'd still be gambling on an uncertain outcome. So yes poker is definetley gambling and if anyone disagrees, they do not know the fundamentals of poker.

[Blue Pig]

[ QUOTE ]
If you would be a 99% favorite... You'd still be gambling on an uncertain outcome. So yes poker is definetley gambling and if anyone disagrees, they do not know the fundamentals of poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Try being 99% favorite 100 times. How many quintillions of years have to pass before you lose? It's certainly not gambling if you do it long enough. You won't lose in your lifetime if you do it 10 times. That doesn't sound like gambling to me. Are the casinos with their tiny craps edge losing anywhere? When casinos have an edge, they are defeinitely not gambling.. it's called business. Same with poker players. You should reevaluate the fundamentals of poker.

[Blue Pig]

Your question is flawed since you have control over what you do in poker.

[psuasskicker]

If poker is gambling under such a definition, than investing any money in the stock market pretty much has to be considered gambling as well.

- C -

[Keys Myaths]

[ QUOTE ]
If poker is gambling under such a definition, than investing any money in the stock market pretty much has to be considered gambling as well.

- C -

[/ QUOTE ]

That logic is pretty flawed.

Overall, with *everyone* that invests in the stock market combined, there's a +EV.

Overall, with *everyone* that invests in poker play, there's a -EV.

[Poker Face Oz]

I belive that Poker without a VIG is 100% legal in Victoria Australia.The Lotteries Gaming and Betting act of 1966 Section 10 advises:- "Any game in which the chances are not alike favourable to allthe players including among the players the banker or other person by whom the game is managed or against whom the other players stake play or bet"

In section 11 it says " Any game with cards or other instruments of gaming wherefrom any person derives a percentage or share of the amount"

Thus a home poker game where everyone has the same odds, with no "house advantage, banker or vig" is not breaking the law based on this Act! No wonder Joe Hachem is the current WSOP Champion.

[metsandfinsfan]

[ QUOTE ]
Poker is gambling in the short term, skill over the long term. Although we cannot influence the cards, by playign proper strategy we can eek out a small +EV.

Greg

[/ QUOTE ]

Perfectly stated .... long term it is a game of skill ... short term it is luck