What good are we? As poker players, are we socially responsible?

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What obligation do we have to be socially productive or to do things that are "socially beneficial"?

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None.

But then, who IS going to do it?

[b33nz]

Poker is just another gambling game that's mostly played for recreation. What's different from it is that it can be beaten and you can make alot of money doing it. So of course people are going to try to take advantage of that, myself included.

Asking this question can be applied to gambling in general... what good is gambling other than losing your money and having fun? It doesn't produce anything and it doesnt help anybody (except the casino and maybe the people that win)... But the same could be said for poker, too.

[I am fish]

A winning poker player is like a casino. The owners of the casino are looking to make a profit, and the people playing at the casino are looking for entertainment. Nothing wrong with that, the casino is providing a service.

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the people playing at the casino are looking for entertainment.

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Yeah, the army of blue-rinse OAP's pumping coins into the slots from dusk 'til dawn look like they're having a ball! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Ian

[I am fish]

People have to take personal responsibility like in anything else. You can drink alcohol for fun, but it can be abused. That doesn't make drinking alcohol wrong on the whole.

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People have to take personal responsibility like in anything else. You can drink alcohol for fun, but it can be abused. That doesn't make drinking alcohol wrong on the whole.

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I'm sorry to say we have moved on from that into the era of the "Blame Culture".

I don't have to be responsible for anything- it is somebody's elses fault and I'm going to sue 'em!

I know.... it's really sad. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Ian

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People have to take personal responsibility like in anything else. You can drink alcohol for fun, but it can be abused. That doesn't make drinking alcohol wrong on the whole.

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I tend to agree with this for the most part. Most people who have gambling addiction, it is not so much the casino's fault, as it is human nature's. Addiction is addiction, one that is often attributed to compulsive behavior. If these people weren't pumping the slots full from morning to night, the chances are high that the little old blue-haired lady with her hand on the lever would likely be sitting home with her credit card out buying meaningless item after item on the Home Shopping Network, or sitting at the Royal Legion on her 8th draft telling tales of yesteryear, or, or...Point is, if the compulsive nature is there, the vessel for it is soon to arrive.

Unfortunately gambling is a vessel. I don't like to see it, but if Ma Kettle isn't spending her pension cheque on a stool pulling a lever, it is almost a guarantee it will be happening elsewhere.

[Greg J]

Many of us give money to charity occasionally. Plus it helps with the bills. I don't fool myself by telling myself that I'm somehow making the world a better place by playing poker though. I'm not that self delusional.

[James282]

You aren't the first person to arrive at this idea, and you won't be the last. Poker players don't contribute a lot to society while they are performing their job, but neither do most people. Most people do the job that they can make the most money that requires them to do the least amount of work while still doing something they can basically tolerate. A very small percentage of people do something that is greatly fulfilling to them - some of these people make good money but most make almost nothing(relatively speaking). To me, I am less impressed by someone who has led their life as a veritable cog in the machine but who does something seemingly worthwhile than by someone who is doing what they want and enjoying life. For example, people who fail or give up along some career path and "settle" for becoming a teacher are contributing less to the general good than someone who passionately pursues poker and succeeds. The person who passionately pursues teaching trumps both of these people as far as contribution based solely on his profession, but the poker player has a chance to contribute more greatly than the teacher outside of his job because of the things he can effect with his capital if he chooses to do so. The bottom line is, a poker player has just as much chance to "contribute to society" as anybody - if only because their is so much time left in the day once work is over.
-James

[DcifrThs]

i donate a small relative portion of my take from poker to charities. while the relative portion is small to me it makes a big difference to the charities.

latest is $500 to charity on behalf of a friend whose mother recently passed away. i also did it anonymously so as to make it a true mitzvah.

i feel these donations, which i make anywhere from 2-5 times a year are enough to cover my degenerate a.ss

seriously though, if you dont want to be "useless", give some of the money to those that need it and/or can put it to use to benefit the rest of humanity.

Barron