Government Texas Holdem to save Social Security?

There is a nice item from Radley Balko (Cato) today about the HR4777 bill regarding online gambling... check it out: "Anti-Gambling Crusade a Bad Bet".

The hypocrisy of government is amazing. Lotteries are OK... even though they are entirely games of chance. In fact, it is a stretch to refer to them as "games" at all -- they are just chance mechanisms, pure and simple. Poker on the other hand, like the widely-popular Texas Hold'em (a game I really enjoy), is a game of skill. This is not opinion, it is fact: if you learn the proper strategies, you will win in the long run (or at least break-even if you are playing equally skilled opponents). Go to a bookstore like B&N or Borders, see the huge section with shelves and shelves covering poker. Notice that there are no such books on strategies to win the lottery (no serious ones at least). Doesn't this say something?

I'd prefer to see online poker legal and as unregulated as possible. But regulation is preferred over criminalization. Regulate and tax it if you must. But heck, why doesn't the government start up its own online Texas Hold-em sites, and use the proceeds from the rakes to pay down the national debt? Or it could use the proceeds to help fund the Social Security scheme, or medicare, medicaid, and the hundreds of other government programs that our taxes and fees are used for.

For more on this issue, including additional reasons to be against the pending legislation, see the Poker Player's Alliance website. Join the fight to protect this wonderful and entertaining game of skill from conservatives in congress!

I'm sure I'll blog more on this topic in the future, so stay tuned!