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Message: [QUOTE="Michael Paler, post: 2117833, member: 96446"] [b]I blame....all of us.[/b] For years I've known and believed something, that none who chose to challenge me in a debate on the subject ever win. And it's this: [B][I][U]POKER IS NOT GAMBLING[/U][/I][/B]. The reason we lost this great game in the U.S. online is due to us, the poker players, failing over the years to adequately make ourselves heard, that Poker is not gambling. Look, Money laundering was always a weak case to be made, as it would be very impractical and obvious in the large amounts that would be required to make it worthwhile. Morality, however, was the primary reason, only not the "moral" issue itself, oddly enough. If you watch any good politician, they are simply running out of morality issues that are not a "third rail" of politics; Abortion, drugs, gay marriage, etc; these all have become election/re-election killers, leaving politicians in washington scrambling to find morality issues that can be safely tackled to appease the masses whom they assured (lied to) they were a "morals drivin candidate". Enter online "gambling", ie, POKER. And, not only have we as a community miserably failed at explaining how poker is on par with chess and other strategy/mathematically derived games, we continue to allow others to lump us in with games such as craps, roulette, etc. Not helping at all is the utter contempt many high level players on T.V. have for bothering to dress even close to anything resembling someone who is skilled at their trade and not some "degenerate" (in the eyes of those who scorn poker as "gambling" and trust me, they bring out the tapes to make their case). I mean, really, you are "professional" on worldwide T.V., in a game for millions, yet you cannot wear your "big boy" pants and an (untucked, even) shirt [I]with a collar[/I]? But, no, they show up in sweat [I]shorts[/I] and faded tee-shirts, allowing prudes to have easy ammo against us. Sure, this is C.E.O. attire in California and Florida, but CA and FA is not the whole nation! Ask yourself this: Where 1000 people from all across America asked to look at 2 guys, (one dressed in a collar shirt, pants and actual shoes, another in sweatpants and a grungy tee-shirt), and decide which one was most likely to gamble at a game of "chance", which of the two would get more votes? Stereotypes aside, the grunge look will win hands down. I'm not saying that's right, I am saying that is the [I]perception[/I]. Just like the lottery. All this time, after they tried to kill online poker, they continue to have all those state lotteries, which I can assure you, are the truest form of gambling ever devised. Only, somehow, buying a lotto ticket is [I]not[/I] considered gambling, entering a poker tournament for a fee[I] is[/I]. PERCEPTION. So, next time you hear someone mention the word "gambling" and "poker" in the same sentence, think of what I have said here. And give them a polite, and accurate, correction of their perception of us. When you hear a call for players to look more professional on T.V., don't laugh and say how irrelevant that is, because now you know, it is not. [/QUOTE]

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