Misrepresentation of Poker Data

September 15, 2008

Many are wondering why Republicans hate online poker so much. It seems that they have recently done pretty much everything in their power to alienate the poker industry. They deliberately added language in their party platform that said that online poker should be illegal – and this was after they said they would take it out.

Perhaps they are not aware of how many Republican supporters like online poker and want to see it legalized? Not true, for that is why they removed the language in the first place. Then of course there is Spencer Bachus.

Bachus deliberately misquoted a study on online gambling that said that teenage online poker players were likely to attempt suicide. The author of the study said that the correlation was completely unwarranted and that his research was not even in the same area – showing that Bachus had simply made it up.

Bachus does a lot of good as a Congressman in Alabama’s 6th District, but he is so vehemently opposed to online gambling that he is now making up lies to bolster support for making it illegal. Up until now he has given the semblance of someone who generally cares and was against unethical behavior and corruption.

Unfortunately for online poker players, that code of ethics seems to have been left at the door for them. He is working hard to keep Barney Frank’s bill out of the Financial Services Committee and has so far been successful. Perhaps he is not aware that it was poker players that voted him in.