60 Minutes comments
I just watched the 60 Minutes segment a few minutes ago. Here is a copy of it if you haven’t seen it yet:
Here are my comments:
First, it wasn’t that bad. They gave a lot of credit to the players, which was obviously deserved. The forum members and poker players did a great job in the whole thing. They did say a lot of things that were wrong and/or unfair, but it’s broadcast journalism, they have to do their best to sensationalize a little. They actually made gaucho sound great (Harvard grad, big winner, etc) as well as Adanthar (lawyer, etc) and the other guys. I’m glad they didn’t get a bunch of low-life degen idiots to represent poker to the mainstream. I know that some people on 2p2 are claiming DanDruff was a bad person to have on the show because he’s been a part of some conspiracy theories in the past, but… it could have been way worse than DanDruff. He’s a former bracelet winner and he’s a long-time poker pro. He’s been in big games online for years and years. They could have made MUCH worse choices than him.
Second, I LOL’ed hard at the video shot of “offshore”. It was like… just some far off set of buildings or something. I don’t even know what that was a video of.
Third, saying “online poker is illegal” is not correct. The truth is that online poker is illegal according to some at the DOJ, but the DOJ is not a lawmaker in the United States. The DOJ *enforces* laws. Judges, legislators, executives — they make the law. It’s unfair for 60 Minutes to spread a common misconception that online poker is illegal in the states. I was disappointed that they would make that statement.
Fourth, obviously DanDruff looked bad when he said it could happen anywhere. I would have strongly preferred if he hadn’t said that. The reason is that, while it could happen anywhere, the vast majority of the public doesn’t understand the likelihood of it happening on various sites. It’s extremely unlikely to happen on the most reputable sites, although I suppose there’s always a non-zero chance when humans, code and money are involved.
Fifth, the shot of their “offices in Costa Rica” was actually a shot of the Plaza Mayor mall. AP/UB’s main offices are about 5 minutes from there. Nonetheless, 60 Minutes did a great job of making AP/UB’s headquarters look really shady in that video shot.
Sixth, I’m really glad they didn’t address some of the nastier issues in online poker like addicted gamblers and underage poker players. Although many of us would like to pretend those issues don’t exist, they obviously do. I’m a firm believer that online poker can be a fun and safe endeavor for the vast majority of people, but, like everything, some people take it too far. There are definitely people who have managed to ruin their lives via online poker (I believe that most of those people would have ruined their lives another way if poker wasn’t around), so at least 60 Minutes didn’t take this opportunity to go off the deep end re: other issues like that.
I guess that’s it. What did you think?
PS – I am ranking very well in Google for the term “Russ Hamilton” and I’m getting TONS of traffic from it. Pretty sick what 60 Minutes can do for a search term like that.
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Comments
Thanks for uncovering this..
What i would like to ask you about is what you know about pokersites rigging the games internally.
I, along with many other players are convinced that pokersites are rigged, and use algorithms to give the advantage to new and unskilled players, allowing for a redistribution of funds, and therefore a larger rake.. as well as for keeping new players from getting discouraged.
Any ideas?
thanks
Nat, I generally agree with your thoughts on the show. Overall I thought it was pretty even-keeled and reasonably presented. This is 60 Minutes, after all, they could have chosen to go with a much more damaging slant if they thought it would make a better story.
If you were referring to Druff’s closing statement, though, he didn’t say that it could “happen anywhere” – he said “there may be other accounts like this, maybe even on other sites…” Not the same thing – considering the amount of heat he has taken for that comment, at least don’t put words in his mouth.
I thought they did a pretty decent job of explaining what had happened considering the complexity and # of events in the storyline. I figured they would focus on the issue of online gambling and really talk about some of the stuff that goes on.
Instead, they took the time to discuss Russ Hamilton and I was somewhat impressed that they pointed out Joe Norton’s connections. This was mroe in depth than I expected them to go.
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Thanks for your coverage Nat.