Backstreet Poker Blitz

It looks like the Gambling Commission mean business with its proposals to curb illegal poker games all over the country. There will be an awful lot of people from card room managers to casino owners looking on with keen interest because this will affect a lot of people. This comes quick on the heels of the “Gutshot” card room facing prosecution for illegal activity.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am all for creating a clean poker environment for everybody but so long as any new legislation is fair and just. For Poker to be a true world wide global game then it has to be properly run and policed and the games and players must be one hundred per cent straight. You may say that this is an impossible utopian dream but at least let us try to make the game clean.

Let’s face it, we all know that it isn’t but at this time there are just too many people earning money from poker through shady practices and this hurts the games image and prevents a lot of new players from playing poker if they feel that they may be cheated. I know as well as anyone about the practices of professional cheats but like I said in the last blog, poker cannot afford for this to happen and especially at a time when there is huge potential for growth and investment.

The commission is concerned about unregulated poker and the practices that are inherent in it and rightly so. They feel that there are not enough measures in place to protect innocent players from chicanery. I will take this a step further, in many card rooms that I have been in there have been NO measures in place to protect anyone from cheating and such. But the issue is much bigger than this as poker has a duty to keep such things as crime out of the game. It also has a duty to protect under aged people from becoming involved with it as well to protect people that may be exploited along the way. When and only when these issues get sorted out will poker finally rank alongside other sports as a respectable self policing pastime.