Feedback appreciated!!! intend to ask friends to submit something based off this...
Online Poker Inquiry Submission
My name is **** and I’ve considered poker my main hobby alongside surfing and cricket since around 2008. It is an activity I have regularly engaged with over that period alongside a substantial number of my friends. Poker is a game we are passionate about, it is probably the most strategically deep game in the world. To illustrate this point, computers learnt to beat the best human players by the late 1980s. The first time a computer beat a selection of top human players was in January of this year. I mostly play a variant of poker which is more sophisticated still than the most common variant, No Limit Hold’em. It is believed it will be many years still before computers are able to best the top humans in this variant (Pot Limit Omaha).
The depth of strategy of the game is fascinating for thousands of Australians who discuss in person, form skype groups and post on forums in order to share and improve their collective understanding of the game. Many Australians including myself and my friends thoroughly enjoy the healthy competition it promotes. So many of us formerly competed in a variety of sports, however, as we get older, it is more difficult to find the time, and also physically more difficult as we age. Poker is an intellectually stimulating social pursuit we can all continue to engage in together long after our mobility becomes limited.
It is common for poker playing friends to travel together domestically and overseas in order to attend various events and tournaments. The community and interest in poker is huge and the game has been played around the world since its first variant emerged in France in the 17th Century. Groups of friends including my own regularly organise to meet up and socialise over a game of poker. All of us also enjoy online poker, it allows all of us to improve and develop our skills and understanding between organised games between friends. Online poker also allows people to learn the game by playing tiny sums, starting from just 10cents. Star City Casino’s smallest buy in game is $100, a considerably more significant investment that deters many.
Poker is not to be confused in any way with ‘poker machines’. These have absolutely no skill and require only the pressing of a button by the player. It is mind numbing. Poker is a mix of fortune and an incredible amount of skill that takes years to develop, in the long run, better players will always win.
Online poker has made me many connections and trusted friends around Australia and the rest of the world as we passionately engage in a common interest. I would be extremely disappointed if my friends and I were banned from engaging in our most loved shared hobby, especially as the government’s inquiry into gambling in 2010 found that almost no problem gambling is associated with poker.
Why should our favourite pastime be outlawed when our own government found that it produces almost no problem gamblers, while the electronic gaming machines in almost every pub, rsl and bowling club around the country continue to be legal, despite 75-80% of problem gambling being attributed to them?
Please do not take away my passion, especially as I can see no good reason.
Thank you,
**** ****
Relevant Studies
http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/compl...ng-2009/report
2010 Australian Government Productivity Commission inquiry- gambling
Found 75-80% of problem gambling in Australia was associated with electronic gaming machines, the lion’s share of the remainder was associated with sports betting, poker was associated with a negligible number of problem gamblers. I believe this is because it is a game of strategy, skill and socialising, encouraging intellectual pursuit and healthy competition, not antisocial problem gambling.
https://www.communications.gov.au/fi...token=F785mC4l
2012 Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy’s Review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001
Summary
The 2012 report found amongst other things with regards to online poker
- It has a different character to Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs)
- It is partly a game of skill
- There is no evidence that players experience the trance like states that occur when playing EGMs
- There is a social element to the game as you are playing against other people so it is very interactive
- It is a game in which people compete for a pot of money to which they contribute which therefore limits losses
In her submission on the review Dr Sally Gainsbury (Deputy Director at Gambling Treatment Clinic and Research Group, University of Sydney), observed that online poker appears to have relatively low likelihood of leading to gambling problems. The report recommended amending the IGA to pave the way for online poker to be licensed in Australia.
Last edited by Mike Haven; 05-16-2019 at 04:33 AM.