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Unethical Website of the Month November 2005
partypoker.net
Can there be such a thing as a website that is user-friendly, free, entertaining, inoffensive, straight-forward, educational, and yet unethical? There is indeed; in fact, there are several such sites, of which partypoker.net is the best known example. These are training sites, attractively designed to introduce normal Americans of all ages to the game of poker. On these sites they can learn the value of the hands, practice betting strategies and acquire a taste for the game by playing against real opponents at virtual poker tables. Here the chips one bets cost nothing; there will be no pay checks lost or savings accounts depleted on partypoker.net. But that is because the poker played there lacks the crucial element that makes live poker the most popular and exciting of all card games…real risk, real winnings, real money. As a result, the better visitors to partypoker.net become at the skills of poker, the more likely it becomes that they will take the next step, to the conveniently located partypoker.com, where the games, strategy and fun is the same, except that one needs a credit card to play. On this site, the bets are for real.
They are also illegal. Websites like partypoker.com are located off-shore, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, and are collecting billions of dollars from American on-line poker players, many of them college students but also retirees, mothers, lawyers and former day-traders. Thanks to free publicity from the ridiculous number of cable shows devoted to Texas Hold 'Em, arguably the most boring of all poker games, poker is the fastest growing recreational activity in the country, and on-line gambling sites have both contributed to the surge and benefited from it.
So what's the matter with that, you ask? If the game isn't rigged and players play of their own volition, what is unethical about online poker? Let the Scoreboard count the ways:
- It is illegal, remember. And while we can debate the wisdom of prohibiting gambling by law, the fact that it is illegal represents a judgement (one that the Scoreboard agrees with, by the way) on the part of the government that organized gambling does harm to the public, contributes to behavioral problems and financial distress, encourages organized crime, and generally needs to be carefully regulated if it is to exist at all. These sites intentionally skirt U.S. law.
- These sites are illegally taking income away from U.S. gambling enterprises that are legal, are regulated, and are taxed. Yes, the Scoreboard believes there are too many of these in the U.S., but that is an essay for another day. They exist, they are lawful, and it is wrong to use unlawful means to compete with them.
- Inducing someone to break a law encourages disrespect and distain for the law generally. This is corruption.
- Hanging around at the anonymous tables in cyberspace are the computer equivalents of Amarillo Slim, the Cincinnati Kid and Bret Maverick, poker predators who play far beyond the skills of the typical player and will win far more than their share of hands and chips. Poker, contrary to popular belief, is as much a game of skill as chance, and the on-line games are places for the unwary to get fleeced. At least in live poker, you know who your opponent is (Hint: if his name is Ace, Slick, Slim or Kid, play elsewhere). Partypoker.com and its ilk would have you believe that the only difference between the competition on the free and the pay site is the screen names. The real difference is more like the difference between Nemo and Jaws.
- Poker can be addictive, like all gambling games. It also is enticing to college students, who are old enough to get past the 18 year-old age minimum but also immature enough to lose thousands of dollars in online poker marathons.
The burgeoning poker fad has many causes; one completely unpredictable one was the National Hockey League strike, which created the programming void filled by the Hold 'Em shows. Poker is also a terrific social and competitive game, but one that has and will destroy lives…something that bridge, for example, will not do (unless you count being strangled by your partner for failing to bid four spades.) The more people who play, the more people will be hurt. Partypoker.net is as insidious as it is ingenious, a legal, free website that only exists to lure new prey to an illegal, potentially expensive site where the unsuspecting, inexperienced, immature or unwise risk serious harm to their finances, families and security.