There are some interesting thoughts for why we should pursue a segregated poker market, but it's hard to be convinced how harm minimisation protections for a segregated poker market differentiate from an international poker market. If anything, it would just be a microcosm of the current situation with a small percentage of players continuing to not be protected.
@Australian1
1. If a segregated poker market was established here, then its reasonable to assume that the prize/player pools would be much larger relative to the current illegal app poker games offered.
The irony here is that there a lot of players who don't play app poker either (don't like software, low player volume, agent issues etc.), so they access illegal services like BCP, Ignition, ACR etc.
2. As a poker player, I would find it frustrating to play games on an Australian based site with only other Australians, when that site was attracting a high volume of international players/massive prize pools that I wasn't able to compete with.
E.g. Omaha is growing in popularity as more recreational players are learning how to play it. An Australian based business could offer NL/Omaha, but predominantly focus more on Omaha varieties/objectives establishing a reputation for "The best Omaha software, and fun Omaha games". Poker is a very small world, this software and fun omaha games would attract players fast, but as Australians playing in a segregated poker market, we wouldn't be able to participate in these thriving Omaha games with international players.
3. Not sure I agree here...Maybe in a home poker game environment (not just literally) sure you might have 1 regular player/5 recreational, but usually small fields have a higher proportion of regulars as opposed to recreational players especially, like you said, because the regular players multi table, but also most recreational players are unaware of these games or don't play because it is just regular players. Large player pools consist of a large proportion of recreational players due to prize pool advertising, word of mouth, easy to use software etc. This is why all these "professional player" backed sites failed/are failing because they only have a small proportion of recreational players and the losing regular players just stop playing on the site.
I doubt an international poker market relative to an Australian segregated poker market would be the difference in why a player avoided a game. Most losing players don't utilise the advice/experience from professional/problem gamblers in regards to financial management - main factor in game avoidance. Not to mention most recreational players don't care if they win or lose, they care more about availability/oppurtunity.
Most of the time it's usually the players who expect to win an x amount of return but fail to do so (regardless of game style) because of erroneous beliefs, improper financial management, jumping stakes, poor emotional regulation etc. that results in eventual avoidance.
I personally am all for a segregated poker market - if the government forced it. But if this was established on the premise that it provided better harm minimisation protections than an international poker market, I would strongly make the argument that it leaves an oppurtunity for poker players to use illegal services. An international poker market, which also offered poker games separately from casino gaming, would offer better player protections because it would significantly reduce the risk of illegal services being used.
An Australian segregated poker market would create a microcosm of the current environment forcing the players who are left out to further the fight for online poker in an international market. All the expectations for a segregated poker market can be met in an international poker market...
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@Jaamit
Thanks for the link.
I found this study, not related to yours lol. It's kind of interesting in regards to "trying" to establish an evidence based approach to "responsible gambling". Thought you mind find it interesting...
Responsible gambling: a synthesis of the empirical evidence
Robert Ladouceur, Paige Shaffer, Alex Blaszczynski, Howard J. Shaffer
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full...9.2016.1245294
Last edited by C.P.R; 06-22-2020 at 02:59 AM.