Look, I applaud her for taking a moral stance and not accepting money. That said given the comments in this thread id like to make a couple of points.

Everyone knows casino games are -EV, it's clear / obvious. This isn't to say players can never win, casino games do legitimately give players a chance to hit a jackpot for a huge prize. It's not a never-win situation.

Poker on the other hand when pushed as a skill game could be more dangerous in terms of problem gambling. At least when players lose at casino they understand its because the house has a margin, and so they wont keep on depositing / grinding endlessly. At poker however, many losing players have mis-guided belief that they're winning players and just running bad. So carry on depositing / grinding in -ev situations.

I work in the gaming industry and back in 2011 I saw some data for the company I worked for at the time on the % of players who played during the year who were winners (some only played once) and I cant remember exactly but it was something like 19% for poker and 23% for casino ie during the year more people had won at casino than poker. So this argument that promoting poker is fine / casino is bad i think under-estimates the potential gambling problems associated with poker, particularly when people are too they can have an edge. A few years ago i built up a considerable bankroll playing NLH online and heard / read endlessly about how i should get into PLO. So i studied, worked on my PLO game but kept losing buyins! I stuck with it because i was sure i had an edge in the games i was playing (i still think i did!) but after dropping over 50 buyins i had to switch back to NLH to rebuild my roll. I was very possibly a loser in those games and i lost a lot of money, more than i would ever lose playing casino, because i would not have continued.

The state of online poker gamed these days means that casino games are higher EV than poker games for new players. Back to Vicky Coren, she recently played the 25k HU tournament in the latest WCOOP. I don't think its even up for debate that her 25k would have been better spent wagered on black jack...

I totally agree with you, and I don't find this whole step down a big deal at all. Enthusiast poker players will always find and create "studies", that will say poker is a true skill game, no one can lose, it's not addictive, etc.
There is rake in poker, which equals house edge in casino games. Break even players are actually slightly winners.
I also agree with you, that most fish cannot afford to lose the money they did. I personally studied poker for years, played a lot, built up bankrolls, and in the end I still tilted away thousands of dollars, which I obviously could not afford, because I'm form a country where people make 6-7k/year. I'm sure the wast majority of micro players start playing, because they're so poor, they want to take their chances on poker and make some extra.

My whole point is, that poker is very close to other casino games, where the house always wins, and 90% of the players will never see lifetime profit.

respect!

baller

Hi Vicky,

Thanks for sharing this with us and while I personally don't have an issue with other forms of gambling, your integrity is appreciated and best of luck to you in the future.

Mason

Respect

Goodluck! I am impressed

Oh please, DNeg has said things you don't like or disagree with but he has said what he believes.

He still has integrity, just a bit more hate from those that don't like what he has said.

ikd Vicky Coren personally, but she seems to smart/educated to do a butthurt thing like this. BUT i'm pretty sure some other pros, without a renewed contract, will jump on the bandwagon and say "oh, i left, because i don't want to promote gambling" afterwards


also lol @ everyone who wishes her good luck for the future w/o sponsoring ... this lady is a writer, commentator and radio moderator ... poker was/is just a gig/fun for her

Personally I never really thought of Vicky as someone with tremendous skill in poker, for me she was always that over hyped chick who was sponsored for being british and a female that plays poker. That being said I can't help to be in awe for this atitude of hers, this is for me what an ambassador is suppose to be, I don't know if stars was already thinking of leting her go, but nevertheless u got my admiration. This will for sure have reprecussions on other sponsorship contracts. Thanks Vicky for fighting for POKER. Farewell

take a bow # respect

I was never a fan, but have massive respect for this. Well played, all the best!

been following poker ever since it became broadcasted and spread.
VC was one of my least favorite ppl to watch playing. I didnt hate on her like i would on Sheiky f.e. but she just seemed sorta arrogant to me.
10 years later.. wow Vicky you are now my favorite poker player of all time and i would like to apologize for my infantile and prejudging thoughts towards you. After all the bad things and bad characters we´ve had to deal with the past couple of years: you sure are a silver lining in the poker industry.

i would also like to add that Daniel used to be my fav. player and yea let´s put it this way: he is not anymore..

I echo these sentiments by Mason but at the same time I have a few comments on this part of the blog

But I cannot professionally and publicly endorse it, even passively by silence with my name still over the shop. Poker is the game I love, poker is what I signed up to promote. The question I’m probably asked most often in interviews is about the danger of addiction, going skint and so on. I’m always careful to explain the difference between the essentially fair nature of poker, where we all take each other on with the same basic chance, and those casino games at unfavourable odds which can be (especially online) so dangerous for the vulnerable or desperate.

Your average player DOES NOT have a fair fight in todays online poker climate. If you took a casual poker player and put them in the games I play today which range from 10-20 LHE up to the highest stakes that are available they have almost 0 shot to win.

Take the same every day Joe and let them play Blackjack for 10 days straight and in the long run they win a little less than half the time provided they don't spew bet their entire worth.

Before people come in and say that is the point that you can spew your entire worth in casino games well you can do the same thing in poker but the average every day person is rarely going to book poker wins in todays climate and can lose houses playing in the big NL games.

Lastly , the sites that have casino games seem to have the best poker games overall. At least from my experience over 10 years plus playing online.

Poker players do not own the rec players. If the sites want to offer casino games I am fine with that. Every person has a choice on what they want to play and some of the guys who you crush in poker enjoy shooting off some chips in the casino. Thats their choice

Vicky>Amaya

The unfortunate irony of this is that the British press will end up covering the story quite a lot. She is quite the rising star in the BBC - the thinking man's crumpet, if you will.
This will be free PR for Pokerstars and they will be gutted that their casino isn't up and running on the UK client when the newspapers get a hold of the story (and they will - every newspaper will have people who read her blog).

I totally get what you are saying, but you can improve your poker game and learn. You can't say that for roulette or slots.

The best way to improve at poker is to play more.
The best way to improve at casino games is to not play at all.

Yes, you can improve playing poker but the majority of players dont take the initiative to and they get crushed.

Does anyone have the statistics on how many players lose at poker in %? I heard years ago it was very high 90s but I don't know how accurate that # is.

Class

I wouldn't have though but I have very few morals

NH

FYP

Hi chinamaniac:

I'm not sure if your post is in line with what this thread is about, but I do agree with much of it. Too many poker games, especially some of the no-limit games on the Internet, are now out of balance in the sense of too much skill dominating over too little luck in the short run. And I also agree that in the short run, there are certainly players who would be better off playing a casino game.

But there is also a difference. In poker, the opportunity is there to become a winning player in the long run, and of course for many casino games this is not the case. I think this is what Vicky is talking about.

Best wishes,
Mason

Near-universal respect shown for Vicky Coren Mitchell's decision. Sad to think she'll now get doom-switched and will never be the first three-time EPT winner.

Jokes aside: an excellent example to set for those involved in the poker and gambling communities.

+1 esp the beginning but just seems a bit hypocritical when sharks prey of the same degenerate behavior as casinos.