Originally Posted by
DavidDough
This is a fair take. But consider the fact that a casino’s number 1 most valuable customer is one who thinks he/she has an edge, but doesn’t. While I can’t stand piece of shit scammers getting a cut (especially in the case of senior citizens) eliminating stupid gamblers from casinos is against the best interest of advantage players. How would you poker pros like it if I went around and started contacting all the biggest fish, and educated them on how to properly play the game, and how to avoid playing against pros? This is the same thing, only the casino acts as a middle man.
CM can indeed go fuck himself because he was a scammer before this gambling scam, and he will be a scammer after it. But APs rely on bad gamblers, period.
I don't want to get too off topic here... this is actually a better subject for my vegascasinotalk forum, but I'll answer you anyway.
In short, I disagree.
It would take a broadcast with an absolutely massive reach -- far bigger than mine or Kevin's -- to noticeably impact the casino industry's bottom line by teaching bad gamblers to not be as bad. Christopher also lacks such a reach (thankfully). Therefore, saving a gambler from Christopher's terrible coaching helps the gambler but doesn't negatively affect APs. It simply keeps the money in the gambler's pocket, and away from CM's and the casino's.
Also, a case could be made that the increasing prevalence of clueless gamblers has HARMED APs. Yes, the casinos beat them out of more money, but that mostly results in the casino degrading table game rules and video poker paytables, because the bad players don't understand the difference.
You know when you see a good casino promotion, but then realize the best video poker in the joint is a 98% machine, and you ask yourself if it's even worth bothering? That's the result of the rise of the bad players. 20 years ago this wouldn't have happened.
Furthermore, some casinos are softly pushing out non-APs who are simply low -EV overall losers, such as basic strategy blackjack players and mostly-perfect-playing video poker players who stick to the only the best paytables. Some properties have decided that these type of players aren't worth their time, space, money, and energy. (This may change, though, if the industry struggles in the new COVID and post-COVID world.)
APs used to hide somewhat under the cover of just being middle-high stakes VP and BJ basic strategy players, reaping nice offers aimed at that crowd. As I'm sure you noticed, that has degraded a lot over the past decade.
Anyway, on my own show, I give people tips such as how to get Caesars Diamond with minimal (or no) losses, while still following all of the posted program rules. That definitely takes $ out of the casino's pocket, but I don't worry that it's going to affect APs at all. I just like hearing that some of my listeners have saved money (which some have contacted me and thanked me for).
Poker is different because I directly am against the players, not the casino. If bad players are educated to become better, my game becomes tougher. However, for the reasons stated above, that's not really true about educating awful casino gamblers to become not-terrible casino gamblers.
Where APs and poker players have in common is that neither community can afford to have too many
good players. The good players all split the profits to be had, which means more of them means less profit for everyone. One of my favorite poker questions is: "If there are 8 players in the game, and the best player leaves, who benefits most?" Answer: "The second best player." Many people assume the fish benefit when the best player leaves, but in reality, they're largely unaffected (they will lose either way). It's the other good players who gain.
Back to the original topic:
Do I think Kevin is a selfless human being who is exposing scammers to serve his fellow man? No, I don't. Do I care? Not really. Doesn't matter to e what his motivation is, as long as the information he's putting out is truthful, which it seems to be.