Congress Too Busy Gambling With Your Money To Let You Gamble With It Yourself
from the politics-as-usual dept
We had noted recently that Congress appeared to be moving forward with a bill that would actually re-legalize playing online poker. However, reports coming out now suggest that with Congress so busy passing pork-filled bailout bills, the online poker bill has been shifted to the backburner and will probably have to wait until next year. So, you know, if you were planning to survive this economic tough time by making it up playing online poker, you may want to consider moving to, say, Antigua.
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Filed Under: bailout, congress, online poker
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regulate
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Re:
Investment requires far more skill and knowledge than playing it all on black. Except in the worst economic times, a quality, well-distributed portfolio is nearly certain to grow, which is good for the investor. The company has the investor's money to work with in operating and expanding the company, which is good for them. Responsible investment is win-win, where gambling is ALWAYS win-lose. Also, investment temporarily transports money to an entity that uses it to produce a good or service. If they are successful, they can actually grow the economy as a whole. Gambling, on the other hand, is a random transferring of money with no net gain for the economy.
Now, as to why horse racing is legal, but poker isn't, I can't answer. Well, I know why, but I can't see a legitimate justification.
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Re: Re:
you also say that gambling would be the random transferring of money with no net gain for the economy. i'm not sure how you can say this. jobs and taxes are two crucial parts of our economy. these jobs would include many roles, like managers, accountants, information technology personnel, as well as all the other jobs associated with casinos.
i think legalized gambling would even serve a much larger good -- it would get people to really think and talk about money much more regularly, not just once every 20 or 30 years when things tank.
unfortunately i think i'm about a week late for this discussion though. bets of luck everyone, hopefully we see the law overturned next year.
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Not Gambling with out Money!
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Would this be a good idea at the time?
Especially since there are no guarantees these online poker sites would play fair.
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Re: Would this be a good idea at the time?
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Q: difference between a horse race and stock market?
A: 8,000 horses vs. 8 horses
A: when you bet on the stockmarket, the bookies own the best horses
A: the race track's running conditions vary between mud and dust... whereas the stockmarket it is always mud
A: what the horses drop behind 'em has value as rose food
A: if you are still reading this, you're as clueless as the rest of us
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horse racing
When I go to the track, I always do better than flipping a coin or picking a horse at random.
While crazy things do happen, it's not a random game of chance.
Now, lottery on the other hand.....
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Chance vs Skill
Let's look at a few activities mentioned.
Lottery - Game of chance. There is no reliable method fo improving your odds. Counting number of times a number hits (or doesn't) and the overall frequency is the same stategy used by roulette players.
Horse Racing - Game of chance tempered with a bit of knowledge. You can help yourself by looking at the horse (and jockey) overall performance, buut there are too many unknowns to dismiss it as chance.
Stock Market - A bit of both. If you are connected to the right data and you are able to predict certain precursors that will create an upswing, then you have an edge. However, you will not always be right.
Poker - I would estimate about a 60/40 skill/luck split. There is quite a bit of skill in playing poker. Forget what you see on TV, as that is maybe a tenth of the actual hands played. There is psychology and math (including statistics and probability) involved to be a successful poker player. Sure, there is luck. Unfortunately, that is a lot of what people see on TV. They see the suck-outs, the monster flops, etc. What they don't see is the building a reputation to allow the players to push people off pots or make hugely successful bluffs.
One that wasn't mentioned was Blackjack.
Blackjack, if played right (without counting cards) is a game of chance. Slightly in the favor of the house I might add. But, even then it is not a game of chance purely.
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Poker is illegal?
Oh, yeah, that's right. Funny, pokerstars still runs fine for me...
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betting
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