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Posted by on Jul 15, 2013 in Blog, General Poker, Las Vegas | 6 comments

An Open Letter to Sheldon Adelson (Terms for Calling Off the Venetian Poker Room Boycott)

 

pen-and-paper

 

Mr. Adelson, your statement is preposterous.  To suggest poker is not a game of skill is — in your words — baloney.  Your comments are not only incontrovertibly false, they are insulting to millions of poker players who enjoy the game, devote themselves to the spirit of competition, and work hard to improve themselves.

 

July 15, 2013

Mr. Adelson:

Poker players will be boycotting your poker room at the Venetian Resort Casino Hotel in Las Vegas during the dates of July 22-26.  The start of the boycott is just one week away.

The passion behind this boycott was ignited in response to your repeated writings and public statements in opposition to the legalization of online poker in the United States.  Your position on this matter is something I would describe as clear and unmistakable.

I wholeheartedly support your right as a free citizen to speak out on matters you think are important, just as I and millions of other poker players also enjoy those same rights.

However, during the course of your very public campaign in opposition to legalized online poker, you made one statement that is demonstrably false, demanding an immediate retraction.

On June 20th, you appeared on Bloomberg TV and stated as follows: 

“That skill base is, in my opinion, just a bunch of baloney.  To get a card is not skill base.  I know people say it is skill-based, but it’s just so they can categorize it in a certain segment.”

SEE BLOOMBERG TV INTERVIEW HERE

READ COMMENTS HERE

Mr. Adelson, your statement is preposterous.  To suggest poker is not a game of skill is — in your words — baloney.  Your comments are not only incontrovertibly false, they are insulting to millions of poker players who enjoy the game, devote themselves to the spirit of competition, and work hard to improve themselves.

Accordingly, I am now prepared to offer you a solution to this standoff.  Here are the conditions by which my call for a boycott of the Venetian Poker Room boycott will be called off:

1.  You will make or issue a public statement that comes from you and includes the following affirmation:  “Poker is a game of skill.

That’s it.  Nothing else.

There are no other conditions.  All you must do is state publicly is that poker is a skill game.  Once you do this, I will immediately call off the boycott of the Venetian Poker Room between July 22-26.

Instead, should ignore us and take no action, we poker players will continue to make certain you know we are here, that we are not going away, and that we will not forget your blatant mischaracterization of poker and the millions of those who play it.

Mr. Adelson, the next move is yours.

Signed, 

Nolan Dalla

Las Vegas, Nevada

SEE:  Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the Venetian Poker Room boycott.

TAG: Nolan Dalla writings

6 Comments

  1. I want more from him, but this would be a good start.

  2. I agree that poker takes skill but online poker ie pokerstars,it is a bingo,saw ever winning hand busted by 1%,can show u examples of the last week gettin busted by chumps while I grind do the right thing and get beat by losers,tell me,is that skill

  3. He is wrong… poker as a game of skill was settled by Baxter v US in 1986.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxter_v._United_States

    “The money, once bet, would have produced no income without the application of Baxter’s skills. [ . . . ] it was Baxter’s extraordinary poker skills which generated his substantial gaming income, not the intrinsic value of the money he bet.”

  4. BOOM!

  5. Furthermore, there is no such thing as “rake” in a tournament. I presume you are referring to the tournament fee, but even then I fail to see how that plays into a player’s success. No one has ever won or placed well in a tournament and said, “Shit, I sure wish I had that tournament fee back!” Ludicrous.

  6. And finally – if you are struggling to break even, it doesn’t mean that poker is a game of luck. Rather, it means something much simpler. You suck.

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