I am an Obama fan at heart. I really am. Been disappointed about a lot, but he did make a great speech the other day which I'm hoping he'll follow through on - though like Krugman I am happy if this is what we get, but if this is the starting position and we really end up with something half way between the Obama vision and the Ryan plan then we've lost.
But there's a lot of things that just don't square - particularly on the criminal justice side. The refusal to follow up on clear crimes from the Bush years. The clamp down on medical marijuana. The failure to prosecute anyone of significance on Wall Street.
And now Online Poker? Really? To please who? Harry Reid's Las Vegas campaign donors and the religious right who believe poker to be gambling and therefore the work of the devil?
Consenting adults occasionally upload a few dollars into an account on an online poker site and make the statement to other poker players that they feel they have a higher skill level at able to quickly work out complex odds calculations on the fly and make decisions based on that. They will sometimes get together with other players and create a contest where they all pay an entry fee and at the end of that contest the player with the greatest skill level takes home a cash prize out of that entry fee. Sites like Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars facilitate this.
The variance that comes from the random element in the card decks is what makes for the complexity in calculations, but it's not a chance game. As the ads say - if it was a game of chance you wouldn't see the same faces again and again at the final tables. I will be consistently beaten by a better player.
Gambling is the lottery - where the state lets you buy tickets in something where you have no control over winning and you get a very bad expected-value return on your entry fee. Gambling is what you do at casinos in virtually every state in the union. Clearly the state has no problem with gambling and even sponsors it.
Two groups don't like Americans having the freedom to enjoy this form of entertainment. Casino interests who want people to flock to expensive casino resorts to play on casino tables where they take a cut of what you play with. Those casino interests are no doubt particularly strong voices in Harry Reid's ear. The other group is the same set of religious extremists burning Korans and telling us all Obama is a baby-killing muslim.
If it's about tax revenue increase the reporting overhead - Poker professionals are already required to report their winnings/losses for tax purposes.
Otherwise why are we wasting government time and resources to ruin the fun of millions of Americans who are doing no harm to any other person and enjoying online poker instead of watching TV, listening to NPR or going to the movies or whatever other recreational activities the government deems are okay for us to enjoy?
When there are so many serious issues facing the country right now, why are we picking a fight with a large group of Americans - and a fairly independent, swing-voter oriented crowd - who are doing nothing wrong and no harm to anyone?
I get that the other side is insane so Democrats can do pretty much nothing for their base, or piss off any group they like, and Obama still feels he wins the election by default because there's still a plurality for sanity in this country.
But online Poker? Really?
There was nobody at all in Wall Street guilty of ANYTHING in the financial meltdown of 2008? Really? But 20-something kids grinding a living off poker, and 30/40-somethings who want to relax and use their mathematical brain after a day working a tedious job and watching the kids - well we're the enemy, right?
F*ck*ng ridiculous.
