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#1
11-09-2007, 12:19 PM
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Another Reason to Legalize Poker: Player Safety
As Ed Miller writes, there was a New York poker hijack that ended in murder last week.
http://www.notedpokerauthority.com/n...gal-poker.html In Houston this week, a game on Airline Drive was hijacked on Monday, resulting in a shooting. The player is in ICU. Another game was hijacked on Tuesday night. In the past couple of months, 2 more Houston games were robbed. 6 weeks ago, and the biggest poker room in town (with the best security) was raided and closed by the police, forcing players to smaller venues. There are couple of reasons underground games are unsafe. First, because they are subject to police raid and closure, the owners don't have incentive to spend a bunch on security. Second, because the owners are reluctant to report a hijacking to police (none of the Houston robberies have been reported), then hijackers are encouraged to keep on keeping on. People are going to play poker. Their safety needs more consideration in the legalization debate. 
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#3
11-09-2007, 02:16 PM
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Re: Another Reason to Legalize Poker: Player Safety
[ QUOTE ]
legalizing poker has nothing to do with removing crime from a situation involving money. [/ QUOTE ] No? Cool we can all rest easier now. We're directly headed to the equlaivant of bath tub gin, sold to us by criminals, who fight market share battles in the streets with machine guns. But hey I'm sure all the people who got dead and their families feel much better knowing they could have gotten shot and killed just as easily in a 7-11! D$D
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#4
11-09-2007, 05:57 PM
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Re: Another Reason to Legalize Poker: Player Safety
So, no one has ever been robbed or attacked in a legal cardroom? I vaguely recall some news stories in CA that would indicate this isn't true.
If you are arguing that it would be LESS likely to occur, than in illegal card games, I'd agree with that. But crime isn't limited to illegal activities, so your response seems a bit over the top.... especially the last sentence.
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#5
11-09-2007, 06:21 PM
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Re: Another Reason to Legalize Poker: Player Safety
[ QUOTE ]
So, no one has ever been robbed or attacked in a legal cardroom? I vaguely recall some news stories in CA that would indicate this isn't true. If you are arguing that it would be LESS likely to occur, than in illegal card games, I'd agree with that. But crime isn't limited to illegal activities, so your response seems a bit over the top.... especially the last sentence. [/ QUOTE ] The last sentence was to the apparent indifference directed towards people who get killed becuase the love to play poker. Yes I could just as easily get killed driving to a game, and no I would not expect anyone to relate that to poker. But legal games get robbed much less often than illegal games, those deaths I do attribute a large degree to the fact that people can not find a legal game. The man in NY who was shot wasn't a regular (weekly) type player who knowingly assumes the risk, but someone who went to Vegas and Foxwoods to play legally. He seems to have gotten an invite to an illegal game that seemed safe to him. The neighborhood and area was indeed quite nice, not some seedy "Rounders" basement type building. Forgive if you must, my over identification with this palyer as I have been to the occasional decent sized "underground" cash games. IMO, any of us could die in a similar situation, just because our gov't doesn't want us to play in a legal game blessed by our State. I am also appaled at the apparent lack of desire to even discuss how we as members of the poker community might even think of trying to establish a single MTT event to help the family he left behind. D$D
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