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Bill Rini, an recognized expert in the poker industry wrote a blog post yesterday about the shortcomings of the Poker Players Alliance. He criticizes the alliance for their way of argue for the legalization of online poker.
[3]Bill Rini
As Rini writes, even though that he was among the first people, who joined the PPA, soon after it was founded in 2005, he is quite unhappy with the fact that the alliance tries to convince politicians with the wrong arguments. As he puts it:
"The PPA continues to make the logical argument that poker is a game of skill, and therefore not gambling –more on par with Golf or Chess than Roulette or Keno—but we all know how well politicians do with logic.
Obviously any serious poker player will agree with the PPA’s chosen line, but the majority of US citizens are not poker players, and of the alleged 50 million US citizens that partake in the game the vast majority are far from serious players; which makes this argument fall on deaf ears.
First of all, there are the people that find poker morally wrong, and regardless of what you say or what evidence and mathematical computations they are presented with, they will never feel that a card game –where you can win or lose everything on the turn of a single card– is anything other than gambling.
Secondly, there are the people that comprehend the skill factor in poker, but since this only applies to the top 5-10% of players, the other 90-95% of poker players are considered gamblers! For these players, poker is no different than Roulette, Slots, or Blackjack, and depending on their disadvantage in the game they are probably right. If you don’t know the general concepts and theories of the game, or take the time to read books, study, and work on your poker game than you are in fact simply gambling when you play poker –I’ve played with many a person who would have held on to their money longer if they were at a Blackjack table or playing Caribbean Stud."
Rini states that in Washington DC, lobby groups are capable of doing 2 things right: they have lots of connections, and can influence many factors; and they do a good job at predicting and warning against upcoming legislation, and possibly averting the legislation. These are exactly the things, that PPA seem fairly inept at.
If you like the article, you can read the whole post at Bill's Poker Blog [4].