We Need Punishments That Fit The Crime

What is going on these days in the poker community? It seems not a day goes where we find out on 2+2 that someone isn't scamming someone. I think we have had 5 or 6 such incidents in the past few weeks alone. Then we obviously have the Full Tilt and UB mess. Geez, what an industry I am a part of! To be honest, it has been very disheartening to see all of this go on. I badly want to be proud of the industry I am involved in, but it is becoming increasingly difficult with all of the scams that are going on.

I think this points towards why we need licensed and regulated online poker so badly. I hope that in the future once we clearly establish all of the rules on everything, that it calls for player penalties much like the SEC might (not that they catch or even bother to try and catch everyone) throw a person in jail for fraud in the financial services industry.

Honestly, jail is where a long list of these poker scammers belong. I know us poker players seem to be fighting to eliminate player penalties, but I  wish we wouldn't. Once the rules are clearly in place, there is just too much money floating around in the poker economy to let people off the hook. As it stands right now, a loss of reputation and likely ostracism from the poker community are really the only things deterring people from trying to pull off these scams. I am sorry, but if the worst thing that happens to someone for trying to scam people out of 6 figures is that they get called out on 2+2 (which has now devolved into the TMZ for poker) is simply not enough of a deterrent. These scammers belong in jail!

The problem is there is no leadership. Leadership needs to start from the top. Sadly, just this week the Epic Poker League, which is essentially trying to become the PGA Tour of poker, stiffed a guy out of $20,000. Annie Duke (aka the Sarah Palin of poker) and her Epic Poker League told a winner of a satellite event into an Epic Poker League event that they couldn't play the event itself because of a prior conviction as a sex offender. Not only did the league decide that this person should not be allowed to compete in the event proper, but also stole the $20,000 the man won fair and square. All they did was refund the man's entry fee and tell him to go away, essentially. How much do you want to bet that had he not won, not in a million years could he have asked for his money back on the grounds that he shouldn't have been able to play. They basically just free rolled the guy.

The irony in this is astounding. Annie Duke herself used to pimp UB which has stolen tens of millions (if not more) for a large fee (and to my knowledge has kept all the money) and rumor has it, has had a number of shady dealings in the past. Her own brother is basically the Bernie Madoff of poker. Yet she is the one telling others that they are too shady to allow a seat in her Epic Poker League, and stealing money from them in the process. Of course if you are on of her friends like Mike Matusow who is a convicted felon, then that is obviously not a problem. What a world we live in!

I wish the poker community could simply keep their lying to the tables! The lying I am referring to is bluffing, of course. I guess in a way we are all highly trained and skilled liars. But the decent ones draw the line at the tables, and others take it a bit further, which is unfortunate. I honestly don't know if it will ever change. As much as I want this mind sport (which is what poker is now considered according to the IMSA) to become like the sport I most love, golf, I have lost pretty much all hope in that.

Golf has its share of issues as well, but they pale in comparison to poker. About the biggest scandal that comes along in golf is finding out someone smoked pot or got a DUI or something. You never hear about people cheating or pulling off scams. In fact, it is routine for players to call penalties on themselves even when no one other than themselves witnessed the infraction! Even the Tiger Woods "scandal" really is not that much of a scandal at all. He cheated on his wife like crazy. So does half or more of married couples. Besides, that is away from the sport itself. Tiger hasn't cheated anyone on the golf course.

I think moving forward we need to have some clear boundaries and some stiff penalties. We have a Wild, Wild West right now in poker. And the rules haven't always been clear. Obviously when Eli Elezra is going on TV and talking about how he has 16 FTP accounts in his name, he clearly didn't realize he was doing anything wrong. Shoot, I would venture to guess at some point in their career, almost every well known poker player has had a second account or done something technically wrong. The vast majority had no idea they were doing anything wrong because the code of ethics in poker was evolving and there wasn't a clear consensus on things the way there is now.

My hope is that we can get things cleared up when we finally license and regulate poker. I hope the true crooks out there (not someone who just has a relatively minor infraction like having a 2nd account when they are a small to midstakes full ring player) get treated the way they would in any other industry. I mean, why would we lobby for any other way? Imagine if someone in any other industry tried to steal 6 figures from people and after they stole from you, about the best recourse you had was to post on an internet forum hoping that somehow you would get some money back? I mean what a joke! We need laws with strong deterrents just like they have in any other industry and when people cheat, there needs to be a much cleaner way of reporting it and hopefully some penalties that fit the crime.