Poker and Crime: The Myth

Poker Anorak / Editor / 30 May 2008 / Leave a Comment

NOT too long ago - it was yesterday - we wondered why it is that poker players get such a bad press?

We were still thinking of this when leafing through our copy of the Observer, one of Sarnia in Ontario's best half dozen or so newssheets. Therein we learned of a woman who had interrupted a family game of poker to toss a beer bottle at her sister's head.

And then we picked up the New Jersey Star and Ledger and read about Kang-Hyuk Choi, who has been charged with felony murder, armed robbery and weapons offences in connection with the slayings. Choi was arrested in Los Angeles after police found him at a casino with $88,000 in cash and $14,000 in poker chips.

Did he get the poker chips before, allegedly, taking part in the slaying of Han Il Kim, 27; his mother, Yoo Bok Kim, 57; and his uncle, Doo Soo Seo, 70?

Does poker make you into a maniac, or a man on the edge of legality? Of course not. Pah!
Here's another article about a shop owner describing how video poker machines may be used in illegal gambling.

He's paid a fee up front by the machine distributor and, in addition, he receives 60 percent of the machine's profit. Customers are paid out at the store based upon credits they earn.
The vending machine distributors repay any payout made to the players.

And because players play machines that pay out more often, the vendors fiddle their machines like Nigel Kennedy on a Russian singleton's roof.

What does it all mean? We are unsure, and until a study can be conducted, we remain unconvinced that poker is a game for miscreants.

Safest to play at Betfair, where the good people are...