The Great Gadfly

You Could Be The Next Poker MILLIONAIRE

You Could Be The Next Poker MILLIONAIRE
Who needs a casino when a laptop will do?

By Peter Kenney

Recently released figures show that various interests have combined to exceed in $2 billion in expenditures for lobbying in the year 2007. The cause that earned such support...online gambling. Even the giant credit card company Visa, which had in the past lobbied hard against allowing online gambling, has now joined the chorus. It is amazing to me that people are asking “why, how could this happen?”. It is the age-old motive -- money. There are staggering amounts of money to be made and handled.

Poker – the new spectator sport

Consider, one of the fastest growing spectator events on cable television is gambling, primarily Texas hold'em poker. What was once a game that had just one annual national tournament is now at the center of a yearlong calendar of tournaments played at casinos and resorts all over the United States and in the Caribbean. Winners of these events can take home cash prizes of several-hundred-thousand dollars for each tournament. And there are huge prizes for as many as six or more placing behind the winner.

The World Poker Tour, as this new attraction is called, is truly a world tour and it is growing by leaps and bounds. Some of its perennial top players, professional gamblers, have become so recognizable to the general public that they command high fees to appear in television commercials. Since total strangers do not command high fees, that means a lot of people, tens of millions, must know who they are on sight. That is a large market.

The Web and gambling -- a potent cocktail

An interesting development in the world of high-stakes competition is that now anyone can enter a tournament, make it into the poker tour with a chance to win right along side the hardcore professional gamblers who play at the tour. For some, this means coming up with as much $10,000 to enter. For others, there is the chance to win a place at the table by playing poker and winning online. As with any good sales effort the enticements are huge and loud or subtle and everywhere. And herein lies a partial explanation of the vast amounts of money being poured into lobbying efforts supportive of online gambling.

Consider, advertising interests have recognized the power and value of the Web. So, they want online gambling because it will bring more prospective buyers of their wares to the Web. Also, banks and credit card companies want to lend more money to more people at high fees. After all, when a person sits down at a home computer and logs on there is no cash being taken from a pocket, it’s just a matter of typing in a series of digits. The combined addictive aspects of the Web itself and gambling make for a potent cocktail.

Who needs a casino when a laptop will do?

Best of all is this: there is no need to go through the regulatory hassle and huge expense of getting a state-issued gaming license. Who needs to build a billion-dollar casino when a laptop will do...and the gambler pays for the laptop! There is no need to spend money for the travel required to go to a casino; all that money can go towards a devastating evening trying to beat the pros at Hold'em.

Here in Massachusetts, for example, our horse racing business is nearly dead. But, a race track could install computer terminals and charge a fee for using them to gamble online as well as taking a share of the "drop" or "handle” -- the total amount gambled by each player. Churches, social clubs, hotels and resorts, bars and restaurants...any place with a roof and electricity plus an Internet connection is now potentially a casino. Of course there is money being spent on lobbying for online gambling.

Online gambling is increasingly seen as a way to save fading resort and recreation venues such as aging coastal resorts and hotels in cities. Slumping racetracks, out-of style restaurants and probably convenience stores and neighborhood bars will be the Babylon of poker. How about a boozy night at the local strip club with a wallet full of credit cards? Now there is a recipe for disaster.

Pimps, dope dealers, bookies – and Visa

People will still travel to Las Vegas and Reno and Atlantic City and Connecticut, but they will also now be able to lose their shirts at home or at a whole new range of convenient locations nearby. Pimps, dope dealers, bookies and assorted con artists now have high-class company -- Visa and many more respectable American commercial giants. As I heard one celebrity commentator crow recently on cable television at the end of one of the new poker tournaments -- "Visit us online at www...com and YOU could be the next poker MILLIONAIRE!