LAS VEGAS–Local Attorney Bob Nersesian submitted an interesting letter to the editor in today\’s Las Vegas Review–Journal regarding \”advantage gamblers\” being banned from playing in the WSOP (as was the case with Richard Brodie before Jeffrey Pollack pulled some strings to allow him to play):
Advantage gamblers are professional gamblers who legally play games with an edge over the casino.
Think Dustin Hoffman in Rainman.
While it’s quite common for a Casino to bar these types of players from their table games, it is completely ridiculous that Harrah’s ostracizes them from the World Series of Poker as well. I’m thinking the same thing…how can a game, argued to be a sport of skill in western civilization, ban these players that possess the very craft that separates the amateurs from the pros? This is one of the many formulas that made Stu Ungar…Stu Ungar.
In poker when bad things happen we say “that’s poker†but in this case we\’ll use the infamous line “that’s Harrah’s.â€Â
FYI – Pokerati is having technical problems, feel free to send me an email here with your comment as I would love to hear some opinions on this matter. We’ll be sure to add them when our wounds are healed.