Danny if your gambling in a poker game you ain’t going to last long and let me add that poker is the only game where you get to look at cards before placeing a bet and have the option to check or fold, unless your in the big or little blind and then it’s only the blind value. All the other games you play against the house and against fixed odds but in poker it’s individual against individual.
Now for the sake of argument lets go ahead and call it gambling, the stock market is the biggest casino in the world then you have state lotteries. Call it what you want but these are gambling operations plain and simple hell you’ve even got bingo. It’s nothing more than a double standard. Let them open up poker parlors, that gives the players a safe comfortable place to enjoy the game they love and tax them like any other business. They’ll provide jobs and revenue to the local economey.
There is no comparison between poker and the stock market.
The stock market drives investment in industries. A properly diversified portfolio will return a profit over time.
Poker at best is a zero sum game. It’s not investing at all, it’s gambling. And everyone knows it’s gambling.
State Lotteries and bingo are gambling too. And everyone knows that.
Gambling hurts economies more than any entertainment value it provides. People gamble away money that should be going to pay their bills, leaving service providers with bad debts.