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I actually believe the long term impact is bad for the players as a group. The corporations are getting to do whatever they want at any time without saying a word to anyone and then exploit whomever they want at any time. All the freerolls mean is that several poker players can play a few more major tournaments every year. That doesn't mean a whole lot in the big picture. They got what they deserved here and that article hopefully won't fool anyone.

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I would appreciate it if someone who is all up in arms about this could answer a few questions.

1) Do you think the fact that there was to be a TOC actually induced someone to play who wasn't going to otherwise?

2) Do you think anyone who played would have not played if Harrah's had said beforehand that they were reserving a half dozen seats for sponsor's exemptions?

I don't think anyone played because of the TOC and I don't believe there is anyone who would have refused to play if they had known about the sponsorship exemptions.

What Harrah's did wrong was not tell people ahead of time that there might be exemptions. That's obviously not a good thing but it completely and utterly pales in comparison to the importance of bringing in sponsorship money.