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So, if you consider poker to be unethical and/or does not contribute to society do you believe the same thing about chess? Why or why not?

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Playing poker professionally is definitely not unethical. It is an honest living (if you don't cheat), just like many other professions. However, that doesn't mean the profession contributes to the betterment of society as a whole. It doesn't. And that's ok. If a person can make a living playing poker, I say more power to him. We all need to earn money and support our families. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that a guy sitting in the basement of the Borgata pushing chips around all day is somehow making a great contribution to the world.

I'd argue that professional chess players don't contribute a whole lot to society either. But that doesn't mean it's an unethical way to make a living.

People probably have more respect for the professional chess player than poker player, because chess is a game of pure skill. People respect great skill, which is why we pay a lot of money to watch athletes play a game more skillfully than most of us could ever dream of. While we on 2+2 know that a winning poker player must have skill as well, it is also a gambling game with an element of luck involved. Thus it will never get the respect of a pure skill game like chess.