Annie Duke recently appeared on FOX Business New’s
Stossel to discuss whether or not
gambling should be legalized. Now Duke is loathed by quite a few poker pros for various reasons – including what many perceive to be an arrogant attitude – but she did come off pretty well on the News segment.
When asked by Jim Stossel about the gambling legality issue, she discussed how less than 1% of gamblers have a serious problem, while 7-9% of alcohol drinkers have issues. She continued by stating:
It’s a really small problem. But even if those people are having problems, they’re making those choices for themselves as consensual adults – they’re not hurting anybody. And I don’t think that we’re supposed to legislate to protect some small minority from their own bad decisions, and hurt the majority who did it in a healthy way…and they enjoy it in the same way they enjoy going to a restaurant or going to a movie.
Duke went on to say that too often, legislation is based on anecdotes about somebody robbing a bank after losing money gambling, or kids playing casino games online. However, she doesn’t think that legislation should be enacted just to prevent a small number of isolated incidents.
Another good point she brought up involves how professional sports leagues are staunch opponents of gambling since they don’t want athletes to get involved in fixing games. But Duke said that these leagues depend upon sports betting to drive spectators to their games.
Stossel himself ended with a nice comment about how the state lottery presents a major hypocrisy. States initially started legal lotteries to prevent illegal lotteries from ripping people off. However, these state and national lottery organizations now take 50% of the revenue. If you want to watch the interview in its entirety, you can check it out below.
