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

Barry Greenstein donates all his winnings to charity. That's my ideal lifestyle. I want to be rich from whatever it is I do, and then play poker for fun by donating money to charitees.

[roundhouse]

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Barry Greenstein donates all his winnings to charity. That's my ideal lifestyle. I want to be rich from whatever it is I do, and then play poker for fun by donating money to charitees.

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No, Barry donates all his tourney winnings to charity. He can afford to do so because he's make so much playing in the big cash games.

RH

[roundhouse]

The average footballer's wage in the English Premiership is £15,000 per week, the top players are paid around £90k per week. What value do they add to society?

American translation: football = soccer; £15k = $27k; £90k = $162k

It is irrelevant whether you are a winning or losing poker player. The majority of players seek entertainment, they need participants to acheive this, you are a participant. Also poker is not a negative sum game in the societal sense. Yes the players collectively pay in more than they take out (just as, in effect, they do in any other entertainment industry), but the difference goes to a company which provides employment, pays taxes and, if listed on the stock exchange, is helping to fund a lot of people's pensions (whether they realise it or not). Most occupations (legit) can be rationalised to be net contributors to society in this way - you need to be able to expand your world view suitably: most people can't, don't or won't.

RH

[mmcd]

As another poster mentioned early in thread, our function is simple: we remove money from the hands of stupid people. Due to the various ineffeciencies of our current economic system, stupid people often end up with more money than they should have. Often these people usually just waste the money in one way or another. By removing from their hands money they shouldn't have had in the first place, we make everything more efficient. Poker players deliver justice.

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The average footballer's wage in the English Premiership is £15,000 per week, the top players are paid around £90k per week. What value do they add to society?


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Although I am not into football in any shape of form....

You could argue that footballers provide much more entertainment value than poker players. Look at how many people attend football matches every week.

And at the end of day, someone is PAYING those players that money- they are not WINNING it as such. Professional football is big business and those players would not be payed those sums if the return wasn't worth it for the club.

Ian

[lehighguy]

Humanity is a cancer upon the planet to begin with.

Mother Terresa is probably a worse person then you, her good works keep increasing the population and destroying the planet.

I would stop searching for greater meaning and morality. It's essentially a vale through which the powerful try to control people by placing them in intellectual and behaivoral confines for thier own personal benefit.

Lets face it....


Poker is real.

Skilled players can profit from their skill

That in itself will appeal to many people who "want in".


You can go on forever discussing the social responsibility of poker, but what you are really discussing is the social nature of human beings. Poker (as I see it) is a microcosm of real lifel. Winners and losers / skilled & unskilled / lucky and unlucky. It's a simple as that.

Is it socially responsible for me to have a car? I can take the bus. But I don't want to. I want my own space. It's HUMAN nature. Unfortunately human nature is unpolitically correct.

Regards,
Ian

[Nomad84]

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You could argue that poker provide much more entertainment value than football players. Look at how many people play poker every week.

And at the end of day, someone is PAYING those poker players that money in exchange for their entertainment- they are not WINNING it as such. Poker is big business and those players would not earn those sums if the entertainment wasn't worth it for the other players.

Ian

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