Poker News

WSOP Critique

There is no doubt that the 2006 World Series of Poker was the most disgraceful on record. Although some improvements were made this year, many still exist.

This series of editorials illuminates some of the more important problems and suggests what should be done about them. Most of my commentaries are directed at Harrah’s top management, and they need to take action to resolve their issues.

My role is that of any other journalist … to be the conscience of the public, and to point out what’s wrong. Your role is to bug Harrah’s so they do the right thing.

There was a time, and it wasn’t long ago, when gambling and poker were viewed as societal pariahs. It was prevalent when I began publishing in this field. Here’s a personal example. In order to get a commercial for Gambling Times magazine that we made with George Jessel on television, I had to appear before the 20+ member Television Code Authority in Washington D.C. None of the local Los Angeles television channels would run any commercial connected with “gambling,” even though we did not offer a gambling opportunity to the public. We just offered a periodical for people to read about gambling.

I did a good job that day. When they finished grilling me I pointed out that all the game shows on television offering prizes or money where a contestant had to risk something to win more were engaging in gambling. They gave me some relief and said I could run a commercial on television.

Now what the late George Jessel said in the commercial was this. “You know, they paid me to do this commercial, but I have made so much money from reading Gambling Times, I would have done it for nothing.”

The proviso of the TV Board was that I could not use that commercial, or any other that told people they could make money from gambling. I ended up was a pyrrhic victory and we killed the project.

Today the tables are turned. Now gambling and poker needs to be careful about their associations in order to maintain a good name. If you know the history of gambling in America, you know that there were two prior times when gambling was on the ascendance in American society. Both were destroyed by scandal. The last was the corrupt Louisiana Lottery around the turn of the last century. As Georges Santana so aptly stated: “Those who fail to learn the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them.”

Although most of us would argue that Poker is NOT gambling, the fact that nearly every legal poker room in the world is co-located with other casino games is inescapable. Everyone, player and casino owner alike, needs to guard against scandal and keep even the hint of it from our doors. So when someone who is involved in a national scandal wants to be associated with our industry’s current success and is willing to pay many millions of dollars for that privilege, the people accepting the money are put into a precarious moral dilemma. Should they take the money or refuse it because it could give their industry a black eye?

I’m referring to Harrah’s putting a product of the Miller Brewing company above the title of their event, the WSOP. Here are the words from a web site that say it all. “Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, WI, producers of the popular beer Miller Genuine Draft, has given at least $30,000 to groups that support illegal aliens and illegal immigration so they can march down our city streets making demands of Americans.”

You will find this and other interesting material on the website, www.millerboycott.com. The details are too lengthy to repeat here, and the issue is explained much better there than I can do here. I urge you to visit this site and make up your own mind.

I knew about this boycott prior to the WSOP. I refrained from mentioning it because I thought it might just be a passing thing, and that Miller Brewing might do something to mitigate the damages. Apparently the boycott is growing. Now Harrah’s needs to examine whether their association with Miller is good for the industry or not. And you, dear reader, should examine this too. Decide for yourself whether you should buy Miller products, but not until you have visited www.millerboycott.com to get all the facts.

As for Poker Player, we have studiously avoided mentioning this sponsor, even though it is on top of every WSOP press release. Of course, some publishers are not thoughtful and print every press release verbatim. Smart publishers edit out the PR material and stick to the facts.

Filed under: Poker News