Laws and logic

Bill Rini attempts to make an argument against anti-gambling laws.

Groups like Focus on the Family are good at shaping these sorts of issues to fit their needs and the poker playing community needs to do so as well. Instead of framing this as an issue of being able to play poker we need to show how hypocritical laws actually put lives in danger. The shooting death of a mathematician and former professor while playing a simple game of poker should be branded a failure of the law the same way the rise of organized crime was blamed on prohibition. Because the legal system then has only one of two choices; they can either crack down on both the rooms and the players (which is politically uncomfortable) or look at making changes that protect poker players by adopting the law to allow it.

Nice sentiments, but he's wrong.

Attempts at logical argument only works on people who already agree with you. And it's really not as logical as the one making the argument thinks.

Laws against poker do make things more dangerous for gamblers. But laws against pretty much anything makes things more dangerous for those who do those things. That's just not a reason to not make the thing in question illegal.