Fox news printed my letter...

[eastbay]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138439,00.html

My letter is signed "Sincerely, Robert."

It is heavily edited from my original submission (which was kind of long), which criticized some of the attacks on gamblers in the original article asking for letters, making them out to be moral deviants who want "something for nothing." She left in one sentence of mine about winning gambling requiring study and practice, but removed the rest of the discussion, as well as my comparisons to "respectable professsions" like financial market traders.

And there is of course the obligatory response of "congrats on beating the odds... for now." But at least she was willing to print something other than "my grandmother is a victim of the gambling industry."

eastbay

[slickpoppa]

"However, I would wager (!) that if most people made money at table games (poker, craps, blackjack), casinos would stop offering them."

What a dumb biyatch

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
"However, I would wager (!) that if most people made money at table games (poker, craps, blackjack), casinos would stop offering them."

What a dumb biyatch

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. Typical, eh? I immediately reached for my keyboard on reading that, and then thought "oh, why bother..."

eastbay

[J.A.Sucker]

Fox News, not knowing anything that they're talking about?!? What??? This IS news!!! /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Trainwreck]

Yeah, I always run to FOX for quality! /s

Blasphemer! -Monty Python joke for you youngstirs.

>TW<

[billyjex]

She still missed your point and clumped all card games together (putting craps in that category as well.) I guess she doesn't get the fact Poker has no house edge; they just take a rake for the service.

Sigh.. the Christian Right will take over our lives soon enough.

Oh Canada! Oh Canada!

[Sponger15SB]

looking in 1 of her past colums...

[ QUOTE ]
If you prefer to speak with someone, you can call these toll-free phone numbers for confidential advice:

1-800-522-4700 — National helpline that will put you in touch with counseling and treatment providers in your area.

1-800-GAMBLER /images/graemlins/shocked.gif /images/graemlins/shocked.gif — Connects you to the New Jersey chapter of the Council on Compulsive Gambling. They'll refer you to local providers.


[/ QUOTE ]

[Al_Capone_Junior]

After reading only half of her column, I see that it's certainly much more fun for this columnist to print negative hype than truth, facts, or a fair and impartial analysis of the gambling industry.

Then let me just add this: "Play Lotto! Support our schools!" is the biggest bunch of BULLCHIT that the American public has gobbled up in huge quantities. The lotto has been called the "poor man's tax" because the poor spend SO much of a higher % of their money on it than a rich person would. Let's not even go into what states ACTUALLY do with the money they promised for "schools." I suspect if even ONE QUARTER of the gigantic revenues generated by lotteries were ACTUALLY spent on schools, the nation wouldn't be such a cess-pool of dullards and publicly "educated" morons. Morons who of course eat up this lotto crap, and of course buy into the hype about gambling created by high profile columnists, particularly those who get their stories on the news or talk shows.

How about Gail's "suggestion" here...

"I’m simply suggesting is that states that generate a lot of revenue from legalized gambling should use some of that money to fund, at the very least, a hotline for compulsive gamblers. "

Great idea Gail (gagging). I guess 1-800-gambler doesn't exist anywhere except the states where Gail doesn't live or frequent. And yeah - let's let the STATE run it, run it into the ground is probably more like it. Get the state beaurocracy involved and watch it go down the tubes. Best to KEEP this resource privately funded by casinos.

How about the EXTREME problem in the USA of people who are not just overweight, but obese? Maybe Gail is a fattie, cuz I don't suppose she'd be in support of banning FOOD. Nope, she was probably munching some fatty fried foods while getting material for her crappy one sided column.

And here's gail's highly ignorant and pathetic response to Robert's email...

"Congratulations on beating the odds — for now. If you read my columns, you’ll find that the focus is on slot machines, which are much more addictive than card games.

However, I would wager (!) that if most people made money at table games (poker, craps, blackjack), casinos would stop offering them."

Her response is almost enough to rest my friggin' case! Pathetic how ignorant this columnist is about the realities of the gambling world. She doesn't even understand that it is possible to beat poker for the long term, for life! She groups poker with craps for friggin' crying out loud!

One more example of how hype and bullchit are FAR more important to the average american dullard idiot than truth or fact will EVER be.

I think I'll go vomit now. Her column could gag a maggot on a gutpile, and it surely has me.

al

[Bukem_]

Ultimately we should all be happy that there is an assumption that "you've beaten the odds... for now" and you will eventually lose if you keep playing.

The fact that the huge majority of people we play against either think they need to be lucky, or don't take the time to understand poker is what makes this game so profitable.

[Cosimo]

Among US states, there's a negative correlation between expenditures per pupil and performance on nationwide standardized tests. In English, spending more money on schools isn't going to educate kids better. SAT scores of Education Majors are lower than any other major, and (except for Sociology majors) they also have the lowest GRE scores. Teachers are paid by seniority, not performance. It is nearly impossible to fire a teacher for anything except either the grossest of crimes or a violation of political correctness. The strangehold that the teachers' unions have on education policy ensures that the status quo will remain.

Although I do agree that too many Americans are too fat, "obese" is a horrible qualifier. Sylvester Stallone and Ahnold are obese, as are many other body builders. The government would classify me as overweight if I had 0% body fat.

and finally I agree that Gail is a fucktard.

[mmbt0ne]

Just so you know, my entire college tuition, as well as any other 3.0 student who went to HS in Georgia and now goes to a public university in Georgia, is paid for entirely by lottery proceeds. Students who choose to attend a private school get the equivalent of public school tuition credited towards their balance. It's not always as bad as it seems.

[Blarg]

Wow that's incredibly great compared to California. We've had the lotto here for decades and our colleges keep getting more expensive and our grade levels before that are the worst in the nation in many regards and keep getting worse.

[banditbdl]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe Gail is a fattie, cuz I don't suppose she'd be in support of banning FOOD. Nope, she was probably munching some fatty fried foods while getting material for her crappy one sided column.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is funny because I was in a nutrition class on Friday when my professor essentially made this very argument. She was convinced it's the government's responsibility to step in and take control of school lunch menus, food advertising, and out of wack restaurant portion sizes. It was embarrassing.

[TomCollins]

A professor who thinks that government should run peoples lives so the ignorant masses can't decide for themselves? No way, you must be lying.

[pokerstudAA]

Sounds like you are going to wind up just like Laurel's mother or that other guy who got killed. Ol' Gail doesnt quite understand that the game of poker revolves around odds just like other "table" games but the skilled poker player can act like a casino in the long run providing their customers with disadvantageous (is that a word) odds.

Casinos do not always beat the guy playing blackjack in seat 3 but they beat everyone who comes and plays during the year. A good poker player will beat the others over the course of the year.

[Lawrence Ng]

[ QUOTE ]
After reading only half of her column, I see that it's certainly much more fun for this columnist to print negative hype than truth, facts, or a fair and impartial analysis of the gambling industry.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is very typical of many media based conglomerates. They will print whatever they choose will favor them more heavily with their subscribers..which then favors their business partners. Go Capitalism!!!

[slogger]

"...However, I would wager (!) that if most people made money at table games (poker, craps, blackjack), casinos would stop offering them."

No sh*t! I bet she couldn't even tell you what rake is, or that poker is played against other players, rather than the casino.

The fact that people who "cover" certain topics and issues for news agencies don't even put in the necessary time and research to understand what they're commenting on is a blight on the entire news industry (and this is coming from a former newspaper reporter and aspiring journalist). This type of ignorance is so prevalent today, that watching the news or reading "opinion" pieces in periodicals is practically useless for anything other than entertainment.