Is being pro ethically wrong? Of couse not you communist!

[McBluffin]

Hello,

Let me introduce myself. I've been a professional online poker player for about a year now. I have chosen this way of life because I love it and the money has been ridiculous. However, I've always considered myself a bit of a philosopher and a ladies man. Apparently, I’m also a liar (see previous sentence). So now I'd like to write about an issue that has been troubling me. So, here it goes.

Is it ethically wrong to play poker for a living or even for a profit? My natural reaction is to scream NO! and bitch-slap the nearest person to my right. However, after contemplating the issue I think I have a better way to present my case.

First let’s start out with why it might be wrong. You (For the rest of this paragraph when I say “You”, I’m assuming “You” are a winning player) are sitting down with inferior poker players and taking their money with your superior skill. Taking money from someone is harming them and therefore could be wrong. You are causing everyone at the table to win less or lose more. You are just as evil as the casino. You are occasionally playing against addicts that can not help themselves. You are contributing to the destruction of that addict’s miserable life.

Feeling defensive yet? Now I will attempt to answer this question and also prove that if you disagree with me, then you must be a communist scumbag. Now I could go into how we are all supposed to be competent adults and all have a fair chance because we are all put under the same conditions. However, I think it’s a lot easier to understand if you think about poker players as their own little business.

Going with this business concept, let me pose a little “real world” situation. Let’s assume that you open a flower shop in a small town where there is only one other flower shop that is run by a little old lady. It doesn’t really matter what the business is, it could be hardware, software, or even sex toys. Hmmm… I like that idea! Ok, I’m changing the shop to be sex toys. Now is just so happens that you are damn good at selling sex toys. You are so good that you run the little old lady out of business. It’s not your fault that she’s better at using her toys then selling them. It’s just the nature of CAPITALISM! (I used all caps, get it!) So, if you think that running her out of business is wrong, then you must believe capitalism is wrong. So I will therefore assume you are a communist. This really makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Corporations all around the world are just as ruthless as a poker player can be.

There is still one more aspect of this that I would like to talk about. The addicts. They seriously can not stop themselves. They are often in a state of desperation and you are fleecing them. Doesn’t that sound wrong? Well, even if you’re not a communist it might make you feel a little guilty. Kinda like that time you farted in class and blamed it on the fat kid.
It might make you feel bad to take an addicts money, but quite frankly, it’s just not your fault that they have a problem. It’s also not your responsibility to stop them from hurting themselves. In reality, you couldn’t stop them even if you tried. The only thing that is going to stop them is hitting rock bottom. So you’re arguably doing them a favor by speeding up the process. Going back to the business concept, keep in mind that restaurants/bars will give alcohol to alcoholics and nobody blames them.
In conclusion, if someone tells you that what you’re doing is not fair or even wrong, call them a communist and bitch-slap them, they deserve it!