[scrawnybob]

hi Matt

thanks for your reply - I have to be honest and put my hands up that I am defensive of poker players rights to be addicted or play sensibly, play for fun, play for profit or whatever they like

so in that sense I guess I am biased

this isnt really a very focussed post so I'll just ramble (maybe a more ordered ramble of this topic on Monday)

personally I dont understand how people get into debt buying big TV's, luxury items etc and
its really their own responsibility - although it seems to be in vogue to portray them as victims
no-one put a gun to their head

I absolutely dont agree that other addictions eg. being a Cliff Richard fan or collecting Star Trek memorabilia arent as bad as "being addicted to poker"

AFAIKS there are two issues surrounding what the media see as an "addiction to poker" which
actually apply to everything in life and not exclusively poker - this is why I have issues with people singling out poker

a) the time involved - eg. neglecting family, friends, work of commitments

this issue is just as if not more likely to happen with any other pastime or indeed with addiction to work as with I would think 80% of people with family and a job - work becomes an unhealthy "addiction"

equally one partners unhealthy addiction for playng computer games or for hobbies

b) the money involved - eg. spending money you cant afford to spend / use of credit cards

now money is the currency of poker - but that IMHO is where any link starts and ends

should we ban clothes because some women (& men) spend more than they can afford on fashion ?

should we ban sofa's and big TV's because some people are irresponsible with their credit cards buying things they cannot afford and arent prepared to save for ?

like players moaning about bad beats (most of them are self caused) , badly losing players are generally losing players because they lack experience, enthusiasm to learn and improve and not enough discipline to use skill rather than just chucking money away - they are generally already addicted to gambling / casino games - and think you can play poker the same way


IMHO if your writing an article on poker it should reflect the reality of playing poker
including both the very small percentage of "addicts" the majority of very marginally net losing players / recreational players who loose an affordable amount and enjoy their hobby and also the 10% that are net winners

if you write an article on addiction - then you should cover all addiction - fashion, drink, gambling (generally and including poker), credit card debit on buying houses, tv's etc etc

I hope some of this makes sense - I guess my point is most player enjoy the game within their limits responsibly - the ones who are addicted are equally likely to already have addictive personalities to other things as well

I really dont think that just because someone chooses to play freerolls or within their budget (eg. saving their beer money for a week) for lots of hours of their lives - that makes them addicted -
I really dont think it does - If they are single, happy and not stressing out anyone else out - I really dont think thats unhealthy and equally we have several happy couples on the forum who enjoy poker together

cheers scrawnybob