Hide that Poker Face

     As an avid watcher of professional sports, I tune into TSN, Sporstnet, and The Score on a daily basis. What I never expected to see on these sports networks was gambling. Why on Gaia’s green earth am I seeing gambling on these stations?

     Within the last decade or so, gambling (Texas Hold’em in particular) has seeped in through the cracks and is now littering these stations on a weekly basis with their programs. Why? I have no idea. Poker is not a sport. It never has been, and it never will be. A simple comparison of the two clearly indicates the difference between gambling and a professional sport.

     Success in professional sports takes years of training, hard work, dedication, cognitive ability, and the constant practice during the year and during the off season. These professional athletes are paid millions for their skill and devotion to the sport. Some may argue they are paid too much, but it is clear that they work through blood, sweat, and tears to play the sport, as well as keep their jobs.

     What does it take to win at gambling/poker? The ratio is about ¼ knowledge of the game, and about ¾ chance or luck (whatever you choose to call it). Gambling is all about the luck of the draw. Some may argue it does indeed take skill to judge opponents, and make faces; in a sense, this is correct. It does take some skill in using proper judgment when dealing with large sums of money, and making faces like Jim Carey to throw people off. Does this mean gambling deserves to be on sports networks, or that the gamblers deserve the money they win? No. Gambling is also not deserving of having announcers that tell the audience that the gamblers actually have control of the game, or have any say in the final outcome. These announcers insinuate that the gamblers have vast amounts of skill when it comes to a game of chance. This could not be further from the truth. In comparison, this is the same as claiming that craps and roulette actually take skill to win. That is just ludicrous.

     I can understand and tolerate seeing billiards or darts on a sports network, as these games take immense amounts of practice and skill to the get the level of these professionals. These players do indeed use skill and finesse in order to win. Gambling does not tend to use either.

     In closing, gambling is essentially a game of chance. It takes very little skill to win. When playing Texas Hold’em, you can put a ten year veteran against someone who has never played the game once (but is informed of the rules). What would the outcome be? No one knows, because it is a game of chance and could go either way. They have a fifty-fifty chance to win. That being said, if you place a ten year hockey veteran against someone who has never played hockey (but knows the rules), the outcome is quite simple; the ten year veteran takes the rookie to school.

     Gambling does not deserve any place on sports networks, or any of the praise that it receives for using vast amounts of skill to win. We can only hope that these networks see the bad hand they have, and decide to push gambling back into its humble home…the casino.