Perspectives Friday: Verdict in Washington State
by J. Todd, Feb 13, 2009 | 2:04 am
A Judge in Washington State has made a ruling in the Betcha.com online gambling case involving our old friend, Nick Jenkins! Plus, we cover industry news from the United Kingdom about Google’s online gambling advertising policy, and the Toronto Sun article about which finally covers the Absolute Poker cheating scandal.
Chris Tessaro says:
February 13th, 2009 at 6:23am
I am the author (and the poker columnist) from the Toronto Sun. I wrote the column to which you refer. I appreciate that you have read, however, I must correct one inaccuracy: I wrote a column about the 60 Minutes news story the same week of the broadcast. This week’s column was more about the image of poker. The December 3rd column was a direct response to 60 Minutes. In that column, I called out Sixty Minutes for both their inaccuracies, and their refusal to allow players such as Mike Sexton and Greg Raymer to speak to their inaccuracies.
That column can be found here: http://www.torontosun.com/sports/poker/2008/12/03/7616286.html
As well, we spoke with Sexton and Raymer on our radio show (The Hardcore Poker Show on Sirius Satellite Channel 98) immediately following the 60 Minutes broadcast. We also interviewed Gil Gaul from the Washington Post.
Those interviews can be found here:
http://www.hardcorepokershow.com/podcasts.html See December 3rd show.
While I can understand how a shoddy organization like 60 Minutes can get facts wrong, we certainly hold Pokerati to a much higher standard!!!
Keep up the good work! Love the site…
Chris Tessaro
DanM says:
February 13th, 2009 at 8:03am
I love satellite radio. I’ve got a spot for Sirius 98 right between Liquid Metal and Outlaw Country.
J Todd says:
February 13th, 2009 at 6:32pm
Hi Chris…
I believe we covered your original article back in December, too. We appreciate all the work you do. The fact that Canada’s largest city’s newspaper has to outsource talent to get a decent article is aweful!
DanM says:
February 14th, 2009 at 12:14pm
Dude, that’s just the fate of newspapers in general. You need to embrace the internet, J. Todd! I think it’s catching on.
Chris Tessaro says:
February 15th, 2009 at 6:04am
Actually, I don’t know very many national newspapers anywhere in the world that run a weekly poker column, so I give the Sun a lot of credit for taking that on. And, as a poker writer, I’m obviously happier that they use someone from the industry as opposed to a staff writer that may not be very connected to the game.
At any rate, anything that raises the profile of the game is a good thing!
And on that note…. how about posting a link to my column on Pokerati?
That would be great!
DanM says:
February 15th, 2009 at 3:24pm
Do you have a link to where we can find all your poker columns together, or even better yet, an RSS feed?
BTW, it’s important that you keep writing well, too … because we don’t post just anyone’s garbage just because it happens to be related to poker!
J Todd says:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:00pm
Yea, I give the Sun props for running the article. And no, I don’t think they need a staff writer devoted to poker. But to me the issue was a lot more than poker: Personal freedoms; player protection; governmental hypocrisies; etc.
Would be nice to see the main stream media — newspapers, radio, television and the like — give this issue more realistic coverage, not just the negative bullcrap so they can sensationalize everything to perpetuate the political agenda.
Anyways, thanks for fighting the good fight. We all just have to keep doing our parts. =0)
Chris Tessaro says:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:14pm
LOL…. thanks Dan, I will attempt to keep the bar raised to at least crotch level!
The Poker Dude (I did NOT name it!) can be found here: http://www.torontosun.com/sports/poker
Thanks again!
DanM says:
February 15th, 2009 at 7:22pm
>>>Would be nice to see the main stream media — newspapers, radio, television and the like — give this issue more realistic coverage, not just the negative bullcrap so they can sensationalize everything to perpetuate the political agenda.<<< That's really what we need -- non-poker-playing media to follow the story, maybe with a poker-playing colleague nearby to offer some guidance on any of the complexities they might not get on first glance of the issues at hand.