Is poker unethical??

So, I am doing a research project involving online poker, namely its a software project involving collusion detection.

For it, I have to establish some background and discuss the social and ethical implications.

So I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on, why you think poker is ethical/ unethical? why do you play poker? What if any skills do you aquire from playing poker (particularly online poker). Do these skill help you outside of poker? should online poker be legal and regulated? What impact do you think poker has on society, the economy, etc.?

Please respond with your thoughts, it will help me alot. Also would be helpful if you could direct me to links pertaining to the the ethics of poker, and the debate over the legal regulation of online poker.

Also if you have any experience with collusion detection algorithms and are willing to help, let me know...

thanks!

Hello ra64, my views are straight forward, I am of the opinion that governments worldwide should make it a legal requirement to at least download a poker site if you own a computer.
Imprisonment for none conformers after a certain period of time should follow.
The above comments should enable you to tick the relevant boxes for your other remaining questions.
Good luck.

What does collusion detection software have to do with the ethics of poker and the other questions you ask? Shouldn't you be asking about the ethics of collusion and bots?

RA64: Please excuse the overtone of what I'm about to type. You could be the greatest person, but in these times I feel it is hard to talk about poker legality and to trust anyone with such talk outside of known poker players. So don't take this personally.

We've had people come on here and ask general questions about taxes, the laws and bills pending, etc. If I were involved in the effort to ban poker or to enforce current laws regarding poker, I would find this forum a great resource of information to further my crusade against poker.

Since I am, in fact, deeply concerned with the effort to deny my right to make a living for my family while playing online poker, forgive me for not being open to discussion about it to someone who is unknown to this forum. I do not wish to give any ammunition to the enemy, be it to anyone asking the question or to those adversaries that may just be reading about it, printing it, and giving it to their cause.

Again, don't take this personally. But I'll have to urge my fellow members to refrain from giving any responses that can be twisted into fodder and used against us in these times of governmental crackdowns.

To answer your question: With its unique blend of skill and luck, playing poker is just as ethical as playing Left Field at Yankee Stadium.

Good luck in your pursuits.

^^^^^^^^What he said. Thanks MrSticker!!!^^^^^^^^^

What Zinzan said only more so.

in short, thats not what my professor thought about the issue. I also plan to discuss the ethics of collusion and bots, but I think that is more strieghtforward. I also need to discuss the implications of online poker in general since my software is designed specifically for this appication.

I can see you concerns. If people don't feel comfortable addressing some of the questions such as the legality of poker, just answer what you feel comfortable with. If you don't want your responses posted publicly, feel free to PM me. If you question my motives, PM me and I'll try to convince you that this is legit by explaining myself and my project in more detail.

sorry, I don't mean to stir things up, but this information would be very helpful to me...

just to follow up on this for the hell of it:

the project was absolutely for real, it was my baccalaureate thesis and it turned out to be quite a disapointment, the biggest reason being since it was a controversial topic, I had to fight just be able to do it, I risked wasting a lot of time, having to scrap it and start on something completely different, even delaying my graduation. the response I got from here did not help! lol. In the end it probably wasn't worth it and I'm still kinda frustrated about it. For all the time I wasted justifying the project and some other unrelated reasons, I didn't have enough time to do all the technical work I needed.

anyway, if your interested or want me to prove this was for real, PM me, I just don't want to reveal personal information publicly.

no way ethics should be involved unless addicts are involved.

I guess i do not understand the question. nearly everything is ethical is there are identified rules and you follow those rules.

Boom 2 year old thread.

Read this thread not realizing it was (shakalaka) 2 yrs old. The answering posts are about what you could expect today....that is, things haven't changed much.

It is a malformed question, I can see where a prof would have issues with it as a thesis project.

And I could also say that I found MrSnickers reply a wee bit on the paranoid side

Stick got it right then, and its still a valid argument.