Is Playing Poker Professionally Ethical?

Here's what I said:

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The deception involved in the gameplay of poker is not unethical. Nor is taking the money of people who choose to gamble with you and also attempt to take your money.

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I do believe using a computer program to record detailed statistics of another player, rate them, and display this information in real time is unethical and against the TOS, since a)they don't know about it or consent to it b)you have to pay money to be able to do this c)you're using a computer to profile opponents for you in a way you couldn't reasonably do yourself. This is against the stated intentions of Party Poker and the reasonable expectations of those playing there.

Anyway I don't wish to derail this thread, please rag on me in the other thread.

About the ethics of poker, here's what I said:

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Where I think the unethical element comes in is the effect that poker has on society. This only matters to people who care about what effect their actions ultimately have on the rest of the world.

The bottom line is that you're not producing anything when you play poker. You're taking money off others and providing nothing in return. Ethics of poker aside, how can any self respecting person accept this as their profession?

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In other words, poker itself is not unethical, but it does have detrimental effects which you can choose to care about. Or not.

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If anything it is just the OPPOSITE!! Big losers come in out of the pits to play poker and SLOW the burn from their losses at black jack, craps, etc. I can't tell you how many times a guy sits in my game and tells me he just lost 30k playing black jack.
You're also WAY overestimating how many people can't afford their poker losses.

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Fair enough. You make good points. It'd be good if we had some actual studies.

Also, live poker is different to online poker in many ways. I don't see anywhere near as much of a problem with live poker, and there is definitely entertainment and social value there.

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What benefits am I left with after paying money to see one of Robert Deniro's movies?

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It's not about the benefits that you get, but the benefits that acting or baseball as a profession provides society, as compared to playing poker...