Roy Cooke over at CardPlayer Magazine has a nice little article on a subject I’ve written about a few times before. The poker industry needs to get an organized voice before the government tries to shut it down. What really made Cooke’s piece hit home with me is that he suggests something similar to what the scuba diving industry has done. As a PADI certified Master Scuba Diver Trainer Instructor (not as a profession but more as a hobby) I was quite surprised that Cooke made the connection I never had. As he correctly points out that we live in a society where cutting hair is regulated in every state yet the scuba diving industry has no governmental oversight.
Groups like PADI formed and lobbied the government to be self-supervised. In order to stay self-regulated the industry has adopted very high standards in terms of professionalism and safety. As a result, the accident rate in the dive industry is extremley low. It’s drilled into our heads to always make the safe decision when we have students in the water and the entire system drills diving safety into every diver. In effect, the industry has set standards higher than any government would/could. Go try and get a scuba tank filled without at least an open water diving certification and you’ll likely get turned down every place you go. There’s absolutely no law preventing this though. If you do find a place willing to give you a fill without a C-Card (certification card) word will spread rapidly within the diving community and if you have any affiliation with diving agencies like PADI, NAUI, or SSI they will surely be calling to warn you that they do not approve of your actions and may subject you to administrative measures unless you cease such sales.
So, I agree with Cooke. I think a non-profit organization that policed online and b&m poker rooms would help build credibility for the sport. They might be very effective in lobbying elected officials and educating them about the difference in games of skill vs. games of chance.
The key to any such organization is that they have to be tougher on their own than the government would be. If there’s even a hint of cheating by a card room they need to do everything possible to have that entity shut down (assuming the accusations were investigated and found to be true). They should establish a universal rake policy that would be followed throughout the industry, create some sort of criteria for dealer training, and establish good business practices that all card rooms must follow. Those card rooms that don’t wish to play by the rules will certainly have a spotlight drawn on them and can be singled out by law enforcement. More likely though, if such a group were successful players would only want to play at certified card rooms.
Perhaps I’m just too influenced by my experiences with PADI and the dive industry. Anybody else have some input?