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#21
05-24-2007, 05:46 PM
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Re: Poker is neither moral nor immoral - maybe
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It's immoral to let the sucker keep his money. [/ QUOTE ] This is what me and my friends told those stupid old people when we pulled our driveway scam. It made it so much easier for us to sleep at night. 
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#22
05-24-2007, 05:48 PM
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Re: Poker is neither moral nor immoral - maybe
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Here's my take, and it crosses several of the replies, so I just made my reply to yukon... I don't believe in some sort of ultimate morality, so I'm not going to claim that poker is right or wrong. And of course, I play, or I wouldn't be here. At the same time, I don't see how one can consider poker moral under any common definition. You mention being able to be charitable more, which would clearly be a moral 'plus', but I think that the very existence of poker games leads to suffering. And not just for the losers, either. I truly believe that I would be a 'better' person not playing. When you play live, if you pay attention, you'll see the suffering on almost everyone's face (I know that sounds touchy-feely). So many people are angry, or upset, or arrogant, or mean-spirited, or whatever...the emotions at the tables I've played at are just overwhelmingly negative. This doesn't really apply to either home games, or higher stakes games, but for the vast majority of casino players, I think it does. And I'm not sure how to feel about online or tournaments, either, but I irrespective of the quality of the opposition, I truly believe that poker causes suffering. That said...conflict is part of life, the mass of people will always have suffering, there is no such thing as a genuine morality, etc... But if you object to suffering, then if you MUST play, do your best to make everyone have a good time...That's what I do to ameliorate my guilt [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. [/ QUOTE ] I like to pretend that I am really good for the game and am doing the card room a service. While it is true that I am good for a game (I'm very sociable, everyone drinks and has a great time at my table) I'm really doing this for my own benefit. Plus, is "helping the casino" a really noble goal to aspire to?
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#23
05-24-2007, 10:26 PM
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Re: Poker is neither moral nor immoral - maybe
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] It's immoral to let the sucker keep his money. [/ QUOTE ] This is what me and my friends told those stupid old people when we pulled our driveway scam. It made it so much easier for us to sleep at night. [/ QUOTE ] What the hell is a driveway scam?
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#24
05-24-2007, 10:27 PM
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Re: Poker is neither moral nor immoral - maybe
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[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Maybe poker causes more good to people (in form of money & entertainment) than bad, since most losing players don't lose too much money compared to how much they own. [/ QUOTE ] Poker is a zero-sum game when you include all players (meaning including the rake, tips, etc). [/ QUOTE ] It's not necessarily a zero-sum game if you also value the entertainment and not just profit. [/ QUOTE ] I agree, but that wasn't the context that was being talked about.
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#25
05-25-2007, 09:07 AM
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Re: Poker is neither moral nor immoral - maybe
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] It's immoral to let the sucker keep his money. [/ QUOTE ] This is what me and my friends told those stupid old people when we pulled our driveway scam. It made it so much easier for us to sleep at night. [/ QUOTE ] What the hell is a driveway scam? [/ QUOTE ] It was this big scam that was going on where people tricked people into paying them to resurface or repave their driveways and make other various home improvements only to either bail out or do a ridiculously superficial job, then take the money and run. They usually targeted the elderly. Ahem, I mean, the suckers. Sorry, it was just something I remember from the news a few years ago.
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