Quote:
Originally Posted by ShowMeUrAce
I think you are correct, sir, these play money players "just like the game", you make a very valid point.
So from that point, we can agree that not ALL poker players in the world play to make some money, ain't we ?
If we do agree, could we also imagine that amongst real money players, "some" of them (maybe a majority, maybe not) are in the same kind of motivational mood when it comes to poker, and simply enjoy to play the game without putting too much thinking into it ?
I've always theorized that the dark secret of the gaming industry is that the reason that
damn near everyone plays is to win. Take the money out of slots and you might still have some kind of sparse, fickle market. But you wouldn't have enough to pay one day of the yearly electric bill at 10% of America's casinos. Easily, 99 percent of people aren't naturally inclined to the cold rationalism necessary to properly chart out and wade through the sensory-overload swamp that is casino gambling. To them, being that way is as unnatural as jumping out of a plane. To the average person, Crude stereotyping, not actuarial mathematics, are the basis of their decisions, gambling included. Scale naturally confounds probability. That BIG cat is REALLY dangerous. That BIG jackpot will make someone REALLY rich. People win at Foxwoods ALL THE TIME. I see it with my own eyes.
I can win too.
You could win the $4,000,000 progressive jackpot. That's a lot of money. That's exciting. And you can't win if you don't play. That kind of money will change your life. Your problems, to the one, will evaporate. The motivation of gamblers is directly proportional not to the EV or the utility of gambling-as-entertainment, but to the payoff, and the perceived frequency of wins. Everyone plays to win.
To some this may seem mildly controversial, to others obvious or even boring. But the point is to acknowledge it as a dirty secret, as opposed to a white lie, because it follows that the business of a casino is, fundamentally, to facilitate the gambler's self-destructive delusion - that they can win in any meaningful way. Most gamblers simply do not or cannot grasp the statistical nature of what they're doing or that, even if they were to get rich, the bad bet was still a bad bet. They're still a sucker, even though they may have happened to win.
None of this is the slightest bit new. But the point is that they all want to win. A gambler's motivation, i.e. demand for the product, is directly proportional to the payoff + the perceived frequency of wins + the credibility of the casino. That's why casinos make such a big deal of advertising big slot winners - it increases the
perceived frequency of wins. It also enhances the casino's credibility. Most casinos in the United States enjoy almost perfect credibility with their clientele. The players believe, with near certainty, that they won't be cheated and that they'lll be paid should they win. Online casinos have struggled with that term in the equation.
What does this mean for Amaya? Again, look at the equation. Motivation = payoff + perception of frequent winners + house credibility. What's the payoff for the bulk of Stars' cash games? What's the credibility of a company that takes two weeks to answer emails, because they had to cut into operating expenses to service debts, and allows Russian gangsters to more or less openly run $5m bot rings?
I haven't said anything new here that wasn't said by October 2014. TL;DR Stars had the global rights to Coke and tried to turn it into a motel chain.
Quote:
As a rational and intelligent person, don't you think that if that really was the case, they wouldn't have touched anything and simply enjoyed the money coming in pockets ?
Or do you think that they bought a company for 5 billions only for the fun of annoying some online poker pros ?
They bought a company for $5B because they're a hammer getting paid by the nail.
Last edited by JudgeHoldem1848; 05-31-2017 at 12:04 AM.