This is an intresting issue since my home country, Finland is currently in a situation where some official parties are talking against online poker, but insted promote a gaming monopoly of a single (mosty slotmachine and videopoker offering) company that is partly owned by the government. It is a danger in my opinion, if a game like poker would be made illegal but the true problem, at least in finnish gambling folks is that the other option is these slotmachines, and THEY are the ones where the company wins a fair amount on every player and only a slight percentage takes winnings home.
Poker on the other hand is about ppl playing other ppl. The house takes a rake and in tournaments, a tournament fee. All the rest is for the 'poker community'.
There are a lot of things that make poker a skill game at least as much as a luck game. Since all of us get the same cards eventually, its more about what do you do with the hand given to you. And that is what makes a player good and winning player if anything.
So blaming poker is not the right way to go, since there is only a slight slice from the pot for the house and players get the rest.
If, then again, a gaming addict that plays all his/her money and is getting into trouble for that can be concidered as problematic cases. In these cases they are about players who should either learn poker better, since they are clearly doing something wrong, or quit altogether.
So all in all: Gambling with slots and video poker is foolish and online poker is a better way to gamble, since u can (and will if u can learn balance ur play to become a winning player.) get a decent income even on low levels.  |