morality question

[melioris]

I am a pretty successful low stakes player. Instead of allowing my bankroll to grow and moving up levels, I usually pull my winnings out in $500-$1000 increments and spurge on some crap that we would never buy if it wasn’t funny-money. (Usually we get a piece of art or something, but the latest purchase was this and a wireless network hookup for it-music in the kitchen is a must- . So I am continuously a $25NL or $50NL player, which maybe the root of my problems.

Every few months I get thinking about the morality of what I am doing. What are all your opinions about the morality of poker? I really struggle with this question. I question the morality of poker because a winning player exploits the mistakes and human weakness in losing players. Without mercy. In this regard, poker can be thought of as a highly evolved form of capitalism. But it is right to be continuously exploiting the human weakness for monetary gain? Sure, some people gamble because they like the thrill, but there are people with gambling problems and people that really can’t afford to be gambling online, and I usually happily take their money. But I kind of feel bad about it. (I don’t want this to turn into some red state/blue state mindless thread, but to answer the question that I will be asked, yes, I do believe that capitalism is a seriously morally flawed economic system. Take any upper-level economic theory class (or read any serious economic study) and you will find that very few argue the moral virtues of capitalism. Instead it is argued, maybe rightly, that morality and economics should be discussed separately.)

My family is moving this summer to Milwaukee. I went out this week to be present at the inspection of the house we are buying. It was awesome to be free of my wife and kids for two days (all those married with young kids know what I mean). I went to the casino in Milwaukee and it totally bummed me out. The card room was full of people that I didn’t want to gamble with. I sat down at a $2/$4 limit table (getting raped by the VIP) and got totally depressed in 2 hours. I left up a little, but completely discontented by what happened. Old people and people that couldn’t afford to be gambling (based on information revealed during conversations) just making stupid plays with crap cards. When I got back to my hotel room I pulled out my money online and figured I’d take a couple of month away from poker to figure out what I think about it.

I respect the poker opinion a lot of the people on the forum and I am interested if anyone else thinks about these issues of poker.