Poker in the Media

Stupid 60 Minutes causing a bunch of hoopla over online poker. It’s bad enough that the industry is in the condition it is, we don’t need CBS condemning us as a bunch of criminals. That should have stayed in the old west.
Although we did have one moment of victory in the segment where the US DoJ essentially said that online horse racing wagers were illegal, when the UIGEA clearly states they’re not.. the whole thing was basically an excuse for a bunch of anti-gambling Nazis like Spencer Bachus to continue to defame the industry.
"(Online gambling's) very real victims are the young people who by the tens of thousands are becoming compulsive, addictive gamblers," said Bachus, the top Republican on the committee that voted against Barney Frank’s call for the UIGEA’s repeal.
Bachus has also referred to studies which show 1/3 of college students who have gambled have attempted suicide.
Oh really? It targets young’ins, ay? Well, what if I told you that of aaaaaall of the gamblers in the U.S., roughly two to three percent had a gambling addiction?
Well, that’s even with online poker rooms being accessed despite what the UIGEA says.
What if I also told you every year 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking in America? 1,900 from car accidents, 1,600 from homicides and 300 from suicides. What’s more, underage drinkers account for 11.4 percent of all alcohol consumption in the U.S.
Among full-time college students, about 45 percent binge on alcohol occasionally or often, compared with 25 percent of the general public.
However, there is no big stink about alcohol becoming illegal. There’s no talk of lowering the drinking age to reduce its appeal. There’s no talk of banning alcohol advertisements in the U.S.
It doesn’t come down to the morality issue, does it Mr. Bachus.