BBC Article on Gambling

Daithio

Normally the BBC's website is pretty good, but I found this article there this morning. Not really very balanced IMO, just the usual scaremongering crap we're all used to.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/4806660.stm

5starpool

Ya, I had read that too. Only focuses on the negatives. Some of the quotes in it are very American too.

I think we had better get used to the idea that the mainstream don't like us...

Drakar

It's actually based around a program I just listened to on BBC Radio 4. I think the listen again link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/crossingcontinents but I'm in work so I can't really check properly. The 20 mins or so I heard in the car on the way in were about the college kids with gambling problems that weren't being addressed.

MrPillowTalk

"They could have gambling on the curriculum along with health, sex education and that kind of stuff. I think it would be appropriate."

"There has to be education in colleges," adds Ryan's father, "because the biggest thing when a kid turns 21 is 'let's go and gamble'.

"It has to be more on the college level - make it a two hour course every semester that kids have to go to"

What do they mean by this?

will there be lectures on the folly of playing Ax out of position, or the undetermined value of playing suited connectors for cheap?

or perhaps it will be more pot odds and bankroll management?

Drakar

Some of the interviews seemed to be with people who were actually gambling (ie blackjack or roulette or something) too, as they seemed to be suggesting 50/50 situations.

Flush Phill

Stay away from those suited connectors Ryan, you'll get taken to school!

fixer

5starpool wrote:

Some of the quotes in it are very American too.

Well, the title of the article might have given you some clue...

pokypoky

Ugh! Didnt like that at all. They inexplicably melt gambling with online poker and throw it into the same nonsensical conceptual pot as STDs and hard drugs. Its pure sensationalist ignorance.

Quote of the article was "I mean, you look at him and you can't tell he's a gambler. He looks fine, he's a handsome guy, polite" I know plenty of hansome, polite gamblers....me for instance.

Ste05

MrPillowTalk wrote:

What do they mean by this?

will there be lectures on the folly of playing Ax out of position, or the undetermined value of playing suited connectors for cheap?

or perhaps it will be more pot odds and bankroll management?

LOL

hotspur

Cheers daitho for that audio link, it was an okay programme, pretty much a spill over from America's National Council of Problem Gambling gambling awareness week last week. I thought it raised a lot of important issues about young people and gambling problems. Although it would be helpful if they differentiated poker from other forms of gambling, then at least it wouldn't produce the huge adverse reactions of "nonsense!" from poker players and permit a sensible look at the relationship between poker and subsequent gambling behaviours, particularly among young people who play poker for money.

Scotty #

Hotspur, I was wondering, and I know your an expert on these matters, what percentage, roughly, of compulsive gamblers have poker as there vice? as opposed to horses, dogs, slots, etc. I know a lot of people who seem to be hooked on video poker so I'd imagine thats high up the list but I'd imagine poker is quiet low.

ArmaniJeanss

Scotty # wrote:

Hotspur, I was wondering, and I know your an expert on these matters, what percentage, roughly, of compulsive gamblers have poker as there vice? as opposed to horses, dogs, slots, etc. I know a lot of people who seem to be hooked on video poker so I'd imagine thats high up the list but I'd imagine poker is quiet low.

OffTopic, but as someone who got very heavily (and obviously very stupidly) involved in poker machines in the 80s and 90s, its almost impossible to explain to nongambling friends the difference between poker and poker machines. I get a continuous stream of friendly warnings telling me I can never beat the computer, and its 'head off a brick wall' trying to explain that I'm not playing against the computer.

P.S Love the curriculum, Mr PillowTalk.

fixer

Drakar wrote:

Some of the interviews seemed to be with people who were actually gambling (ie blackjack or roulette or something) too, as they seemed to be suggesting 50/50 situations.

I'm not sure which article you read, but nowhere does it mention any form of gambling other than poker. the article was about a guy with a problem, and using that as an example case of XX number of other potential problems. If you think it's not true that people can play poker only and still have a gambling problem, you are severly mistaken.

hotspur

Scotty # wrote:

Hotspur, I was wondering, and I know your an expert on these matters, what percentage, roughly, of compulsive gamblers have poker as there vice? as opposed to horses, dogs, slots, etc. I know a lot of people who seem to be hooked on video poker so I'd imagine thats high up the list but I'd imagine poker is quiet low.

Up until now studies have always subsumed poker under "casino table games" making it indistinguishable from blackjack and roulette, so there are no figures for the % of problem gamblers who play poker, but doubtless it is greater than it once was. Most problem gamblers have a range of gambling activites they engage in, but the ones most predictve of problematic play are casino games, gaming machines, and the dogs.
I agree that poker wouldn't itself be high on the list whereas video poker (and all gaming machines) is. But gaming machines are addictive for reasons that make online poker somewhere in between poker and gaming machines. I believe that at *least* 10% of regular online poker players have significant problems with it, and the sooner they donk their rolls off to us the better