The online poker community in the United States has been earnestly seeking to get a bill passed that will legalize online poker in the nation. To their credit, they have witnessed some progress with Nevada legalizing online poker and other states set to follow.
They have strong opposition from federal authorities and it appears to be an uphill task to legalize online poker. However, a few days back, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, Mr. Sheldon Adelson went on BloombergTV and very strongly denounced the legalization of online gambling. Check out the video of the interview below,
To some extent, his negative approach to online poker is expected because he runs a huge brick and mortal Casino company and online poker websites would pose serious competition to his business. Yet, the online poker community would take offence to the way he chose to portray online poker.
Adelson was vehement against the legalization of online poker because according to him it wasn’t really about the money or the market share that it would capture. His opposition to online poker and online gambling was due to the fact that it was addictive and would not benefit society in anyway.
Commenting on the legalization of online poker, Adelson said
Absolutely not. Look, I’m a father, grandfather. I do not want my children – I’m a veteran of the Korean War. I do not want my children to have the opportunity to become addicted to gaming. And poker, in my opinion, would become one of the most addictive games. People do not get addicted to necessarily playing blackjack. They get addicted for the game. It is one of the many compulsive behaviours and somebody is addicted to gaming, they are addicted to some other compulsive behaviours. Can you tell me one good reason why internet gaming should be allowed.
Adelson went even further by saying that there is a huge difference with live poker and online poker, terming online poker as a game of luck and not skill. He went on to say
That skill base is, in my opinion, just a bunch of baloney. To get a card is not skill base. I know people say it is skill based, but it’s just so they can categorize it in a certain segment.
The online gambling community is used to criticism and setbacks but coming from the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands, this might not go down so well. Whatever the case maybe, the online gambling community will have to fight even harder to get their online gambling bill sanctioned.
