Poker for Charity

[stigmata]

I have been considering setting up a charity which operates to make it very easy for poker players to contribute to charity. There is a huge amount of extra income generated by people on these forums and I feel that we could all be doing a little something to help, rather than just buying new iPods, etc.

The basic idea is to have a charity where you can contribute by simply transferring through neteller or by player-player transfer at the major sites. This makes it very easy for poker players to contribute to charity directly from their bankrolls, especially when running good or after a great month. The money would then be distributed something like the following:

1/3 to Oxfam
1/3 to Save the Children
1/3 to a Problem Gambling Charity

Also, at time of natural disaster the charitable contributions could be re-directed after consultation with these boards etc.

The charity would be a registered charity in the UK. It would either have a completely open book philosophy or some sort of official external audit so that it is completely accountable. Quaterly/Yearly reports would be posted here and elsewhere. Contibutions would be confirmed by the recieving charaties themselves. Fund raising drives would be occasionally be made by posting here. I would strive to work closely with neteller (to waiver transfer fees), the poker sites and perhaps other media such as CardPlayer magazine. I would envisage that it would never have any payed employees and minimal running costs. A website would be in operation that would detail the amount of money raised and a thankyou list of contributers etc. Press releases would be made to relevant media, essentially along the lines of 'Poker players gave $xxx to charity this year', and would thus act as much-needed good publicity to the poker playing population.

Before following up with this idea, I wanted to know if it would actually be worthwile - e.g. would it generate enough money for good causes to be worth my effort and work? So, how much money would you envisage contributing in the course of 1 year? Please be totally honest. I would hope that small stakes players could contribute a few dollars, and some of the high rollers could be more generous.

Any other ideas and thoughts on the matter are also welcome.

[Sabrazack]

Isn't donating to Problem Gambling charity pretty darn -Ev?

[stigmata]

Interesting point, but I think it would probably have an entirely negligible effect on the earnings of any individual poker player.

[stigmata]

Also, I would be pretty flexible about the portfolio of charaties and would welcome further comments about this. If many others agreed with Sabrazack then I would strike this off the list. However, I think contributing to a PG charity is actually +EV from a karmic perspective [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Jimbo]

Charity is a form of Socialism from which I abstain. They will have to settle for my rake and bad beats for income.

[stigmata]

[ QUOTE ]
Charity is a form of Socialism from which I abstain. They will have to settle for my rake and bad beats for income.

[/ QUOTE ]

The ethics of charity is an interesting question. I would be happy to discuss it, but i'm not sure that this is the right place. Perhaps you could expand on your thoughts in a new thread in the SMP forum.

[Uglyowl]

Couple of points:

A. The avenue to which to donate to charity is very easy and there are no problems to do so. I have my causes to which I care about and organizations that I trust that I donate to. Not sure how a new charity would help.

B. At the World Series of Poker there were hundreds of players who pledged 1% of their winnings to cancer research. I have not heard anything about this in the media. I am not sure that this would interest the media.

[stigmata]

A) Totally agree. I do however think that people contribute more when it is made a very simple and straightfoward thing to do. With most players having decent sums of money tied up in online accounts, and only withdrawing money that they need, it would encourage a certain part of the population with much disposable income to help others.

B. I guess your right that the only interested media outlets would be Poker outlets, and thus it would just be "preaching to the choir".

[tripdad]

how about donating to poker players who are running bad? can i get a couple G's? i have babies to feed.

tripdad[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]