History doesn’t go short on telling us just how wild the Wild West was back in the old old days. It certainly paints a way of life that was rugged, somewhat unorthodox and untamed. So where did the standards of society all begin? Well believe it or not there were standards back then and as time evolved so did the expectations of society.
Out of the many things that society finds unacceptable by today’s standards is gambling. However, those with high morals figure that gambling should be right up there with drinking, drugs and illicit sex. So who in the world put it into that category of society and exactly when?
In order to answer the question one has to go back in history in regards to gambling. Probably, no one can put a real time line on it but most likely the easiest to remember would be those days of the west when the height of excitement was to hit the Saloon and belt back a few shots and play some Poker.
Now when one thinks about what else went on in the Saloons it’s not difficult to understand why Poker got thrown into the gambit of the unthinkable, which is the drinking and sex. Not to mention the bar and gun fights.
So were the old west legends like Doc Holiday or Wyatt Earp above this evil act of playing poker? Not at all, in fact, if you search out some of the history books you are going to find that they actually had notoriety for their poker skills.
So when you consider the other issues that went on in the Saloons you can really in all honesty understand why Poker would come under the umbrella of the “unthinkable” mode of the good folks.
So if this is the case and Poker was being judged unfairly by the company it kept, then that should shed a whole new light on the world of online Poker.
In fact, if we want to be fair about societal issues, then we would have to say that online Poker is one of the most respectable environments of today’s age.
There is no source for drinking online. Sure the player may be knocking back the whiskey at home, but chances are he would be doing that if he were watching TV.
There is no sex being solicited. In fact, any of us would agree that being at an online gaming site is a lot less harmful than being on a porn site.
Finally there are no brawls or shoot outs. Unless of course someone wants to put a bullet into their computer because they figure another online player cheated, which is not likely.
So did the legends do the unthinkable? If you want to go by the old standards then yes they did. If you want to go by today’s gaming standards then they most certainly did not. In fact, they would be quite respectable if they were here today.
The times have certainly changed. Many topics that were once taboo are now just parts of everyday life. I’d much rather see people playing online poker on a daily basis than surfing porn sites that’s for sure. Poker serves many different purposes for different people, I play for fun, some play for profession and financial gain. I’m glad that society today allows us to play such a game on the internet although i’m not too sure if i would have wanted to play back in the saloon days with the shootouts and western bar fights.