An Important Point About Harrahs Entrance Into The Online Poker Market

[sauce123]

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I agree w/ David.

I can't wait till US sites are legal, gonna be like Christmas every day.

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SANTA PLLZZZZ

[David Sklansky]

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Nike and hundreds of other companies employ 13 year old slave laborers in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and so on.

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I think this is a good counter-point.

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No its not. Partly because the practice (which I'm thinking is overstated in his post) is not widely known. And partly because a certain minimum age law IS an example of something that might be right for the US but not for certain other countries. When Nike employs 15 year old teens at 25 cents an hour they make sure that they can point out to their parents and concerned Americans that it is because of them that their twelve year old doesn't have to work for a dime an hour.

In the case of of internet poker the same does not apply. I know for instance from the SMP forum that British people are not that backward. So if internet poker is bad for us it is bad for them too. Like I said, I don't even think this issue has even been thought about much. So I hope someone will read this thread and suggest the pointed question I broached earlier to ask Harrah's publicity director Jan Jones.

[citanul]

david,

what harrah's is doing isn't the equivalent of opening a casino in manhattan, where it's against the law, it's the equivalent of opening a new casino in macau, where it is legal.

philip morris doesn't sell marijuana in holland because it isn't a marijuana company. elite doesn't offer child escorts because they are not an escort company. i (without checking) will state that philip morris sells cigarettes in holland, and elite hires models in thailand (eh, more doubtful).

part of the problem with drawing an analogy in this instance is that there are relatively few analagous situations. to be really similar, you in effect have to offer an internet based example.

[cjk73]

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Is this actually true? I have a hard time believe the slave part is true. I think 13 year olds should be able to work if they really want to.

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Here's how it works. A 13 year old from a poor family in Bangladesh is under tremendous pressure to work, so that his impoverished family can afford rice and, if they're lucky, some lentils. He goes to find a job, let's say, in the gravel mining sector. He sees that there's an opening, but sees too that he'll need tools, a shovel and a pick, in order to join the workforce. The trouble is he can't afford a shovel or a pick, so he takes a loan from the management to buy a shovel and a pick. He then starts work, never to realize that the interest on the loan is accruing faster than he can save money from his $0.25/hour wage. If he doesn't pay off that shovel and pick, he'll be fined further or, worse, imprisoned (or so he is told). And so, there you go, a 13 year old boy turned slave. This is just one example, but I've read about others, and it occurs across industries. You can be certain that virtually every product you buy from Bangladesh for cheap has come from a factory where child labor, and probably child slave labor, has been used in its manufacture. Likewise, you can be certain that virtually every piece of chocolate you eat that originates from Africa has also been brought to you by way of child slave labor. It's a world-wide epidemic in the third-world, but we don't really hear much about it, because we're too busy being jerked around by a government that wants to keep us safe from internet gambling.

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Certainly you can a provide a link to evidence that Nike is engaged in this same practice as the "gravel pit" as it was Nike who was called out as employers of slave labor in your first post? Slave labor as defined in the above where workers do a job for what amounts to less then 0 pay.

I also have to wonder if .25 in Bangladesh has the same buying power as .25 in the US, I'm guessing the .25 is worth a bit more in Bangladesh.

[David Sklansky]

My analogies aren't good. But the point is. And your arguments are silly. Who cares whether "elite" is an "escort" company. There are no large American companies helping Thailand prostitue 14 year old girls because of the fact that Americans think it is wrong for everybody.

Your point about Macau would have worked for the old MGM site but not the Harrahs one. Its OK to break some of our state laws in other countries. When it is a federal law it puts a different spin on things.

[citanul]

David,

are there any large thai companies helping prostitute 14 year old girls? i don't think so.

you need to think of an industry where there are other LARGE companies involved, making LARGE amount of money for your analogy to hold any water. i don't think there is huge money in the marijuana business in holland.

all i see in this matter is harrahs deciding they think they can profitably and without breaking any laws enter this business. here's the closes analogy i can come up with right now:

say there's an american beer company. they are going along producing beer. they expand, and produce and sell beer in many countries. america passes an alcohol prohibition stating that americans cannot buy booze online, nor can an american company sell booze online, though they can still go to their local beer store and go nuts. the beer company, now a mega multinational corporation later opens an online store selling beer to people who live outside of the US.

it's cool, and it's a thumb of the nose at authority, kinda, but honestly, meh. honestly it should be totally expected that a company like harrahs should enter the online market.

[David Sklansky]

You are missing the point. Which is that a major American company has decided, with much publicity, to help foreigners engage in a practice with the full understanding that the whole United States Congress, with much publicity, has declared to be a bad practice. Bad enough to have a Federal law against it.

I just hope that someone bringing attention to this won't make them reconsider. Because it just might lead to something good.

[Hotel Detect]

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Wasn't Sands (whatever they are called) the first ones to announce this, almost a year ago now? What ever came of that?

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Las vegas sands and they are interested in getting into internet gambling but I think it is kinda small potatoes for them compared to what they have going on in Macau/LV.

[Todd Terry]

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You are missing the point. Which is that a major American company has decided, with much publicity, to help foreigners engage in a practice with the full understanding that the whole United States Congress, with much publicity, has declared to be a bad practice. Bad enough to have a Federal law against it.

I just hope that someone bringing attention to this won't make them reconsider. Because it just might lead to something good.

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There is no federal law against online poker, or even online casino gambling.

[David Sklansky]

We know.