Poker received brief but favorable mention on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times this week. The piece, Texas Hold ‘Em Seizes Gotham, focuses on a character nicknamed “Old Man”. Old Mas is portrayed positively as a responsible recreational gambler:
“he limits losses to $500 a night but also has taken home as much as $1,800 after intensely enjoyable hours at the table.
Old Man is one of the many modest, white-collar gamblers at the city’s illegal clubs who avoid the $1,000 buy-in games with $50,000-plus pots that co-exist in his favorite haunts.”
“Old Man finds their well-run games great fun, especially as young pigeons arrive for the challenge of figuring how to bet in bursts in Texas Hold ’Em, the television-generated poker craze seizing the city’s parlors. He thinks New York plays a “just plain crazy” hand in comparison with other locales where poker parlors are legal, pay taxes and run 20 stories high.
In finding a place to enjoy his favorite pasttime, however, Old Man must endure the inconveniences of armed robbery and police raids. Though the article expresses no explicit stance on what the city’s policy on poker dens ought to be, it seems to suggest that legalization and regulation might not be a bad idea. One can only hope.