Hi guys! Recently I've properly learned poker and quite enjoy it as a game with half skill half luck oppose to other casino games.
I went to try and find an online site which offers it to learn online poker is banned in Australia! The baffles me as lotto, pokies and other casino games are all allowed online. It makes it seem that one of the few games where the 'house' isn't taking the majority cut is banned.
I have read that we are still allowed to play on overseas operated site though. So does anyone know of any sites that accept Australian players?
I'm just worried about not being able to verify an account, withdraw or deposit funds etc on an overseas website. Do any of you play? Where do you guys play that you've had no troubles with?

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUS YEARS ARCHIVE:
1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999

1-3-2000	1-10-2000	1-17-2000	1-24-2000
1-31-2000	2-7-2000	2-14-2000	2-21-2000
2-28-2000	3-6-2000	3-13-2000	3-20-2000
3-27-2000	4-3-2000	4-10-2000	4-17-2000
4-24-2000	5-1-2000	5-8-2000	5-15-2000
5-22-2000	5-29-2000	6-5-2000	6-12-2000

What's up everybody. Hope everyone's doing well. Just a heads up, there will be no Rewind posts for the rest of this week. I won't be around on Wednesday or Friday this week so the next post after today will be next Monday. Hope everybody has a good Thanksgiving. Also, ham is better than turkey and I will die for that belief, fuck you, fight me if you disagree.

• The long-rumored split of AJPW has finally come to pass, as company president Mitsuharu Misawa resigned his position on on 5/28. All sides attempted to keep it quiet to ensure a smooth transition but when word leaked to the media a week or so later, an emergency board of directors meeting was called and 5 more members of the board (wrestlers Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Mitsuo Momota, along with front office exec Yoshihiro Momota and AJPW managing director Kenichi Oyagi) all formally resigned as well. It confirmed that virtually the entire company has decided to leave Motoko Baba. It's strongly believed that will Misawa will be starting his own promotion, probably in September (ends up being August actually). Misawa had hoped to avoid a public promotional war with the wife of Giant Baba and had attempted to negotiate with her to use the AJPW name for his promotion to preserve the legacy and history of what Giant Baba built without it turning nasty. But Motoko Baba refused the proposal and refused to give up any financial control of the company (she owns 85% while Nippon TV owns the other 15%). Both Misawa and Motoko Baba are expected to hold separate press conferences this week to detail their future plans. According to sources, every single wrestler in the company with the exception of Toshiaki Kawada and Masa Fuchi have pledged loyalty to Misawa and pretty much the entire front office is going with him as well. Kawada will likely be named the new AJPW president this week. Kawada and Misawa have known each other since high school but haven't ever really fully gotten along, with Kawada feeling like Misawa was holding him down from being the top star in AJPW. With him in charge, it's expected he will become the top star and will attempt to form a working relationship with NJPW while also bringing in indie talent to fill out the now-empty roster to keep the company afloat.
  
• Misawa and Motoko Baba have never gotten along since Misawa took over as company president following Giant Baba's death. A lot of the problems stem from Baba wanting to maintain the status quo in a company that has been floundering, while Misawa wanted to make major changes, push younger wrestlers, and things like that, only to find himself often overruled. Dave notes a specific show last year when Misawa booked Budokan Hall and put Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori in the main event, which Baba was adamantly against, feeling a Budokan show shouldn't be headlined by wrestlers who weren't yet established main eventers. Misawa also wanted to modernize the contracts, with wrestlers having medical coverage if they're hurt, full pay while out injured, and things like that. Usually every year at the end of March, the wrestlers get raises but that didn't happen this year and as a result, nobody re-signed, so currently the entire AJPW roster of wrestlers are free-agents right now, which is why they're all able to up and leave with Misawa. As much as everyone loved Giant Baba, his wife has always been notoriously unpopular in Japanese wrestling circles and was nicknamed "Dragon Lady." Shortly after Giant Baba's death, she forced Jumbo Tsuruta out of the company after he had worked there for 27 years.
  
• Needless to say, there's some potential legal hurdles here. It's believed Misawa may have a non-compete clause in his previous contract that hasn't run out yet. There's also the possibility that Baba will file a lawsuit claiming that Misawa had started working to set up his new company while still employed as AJPW president. During the meeting where Misawa resigned, Baba didn't attend, instead sending her lawyer with a note saying that she wasn't going to be there. The key to this whole thing is Nippon TV, which has been broadcasting wrestling weekly since the Rikidozan days. Dave says this whole thing is really similar to the 1972 situation when Giant Baba left the old JWA promotion (Rikidozan's company) and started AJPW, and Nippon TV went with him. 7 months later, JWA was dead. Publicly, Nippon TV isn't saying anything but it's believed that they are likely going to side with Misawa also, so AJPW's days on television may be numbered. If for some reason that doesn't happen, the Fuji Network in Japan is interested, so Misawa's promotion will surely end up on TV one way or another. All in all, this is pretty devastating for AJPW.
  
• The situation with AJPW's foreign wrestlers is uncertain. They all ride on the same bus and were told to clean out all their stuff. They also checked to see if their hotels were booked for the upcoming July tour only to find out they haven't been booked yet (they usually are by now) so the foreign stars are said to be pretty concerned that they suddenly might not have jobs. Many of the foreign wrestlers are closer to Mrs. Baba since, well, she writes the checks and the money's never late. But they've all been told not to worry, although they haven't been given any details of what their futures hold. Steve Williams and Johnny Ace are the closest to her on a personal level. Stan Hansen, the highest paid foreign star in AJPW, is staying out of the situation. He's just about ready to retire anyway and has saved his money well, so he's just chillin' and waiting to see how this whole thing shakes out.
  
• Things are only slightly less chaotic in the United States. The WWF vs. USA Network trial began this week and the futures of both WWF's Raw and ECW as a whole probably depend on what happens. USA Senior VP David Brenner testified during the first 2 days and revealed that USA pays WWF $42,000 per episode for Raw. Last year during negotiations, USA had offered to increase the payment to $80,000 per episode in 2001, $85,000 in 2002 and $90,000 in 2003 as well as offering increases in payments for the other three weekly shows on USA but Vince McMahon turned them down. USA then increased the offer but McMahon again turned it down and began negotiating with Fox.
  
• More talk about the future of WCW also. The SFX talks to purchase WCW have seemingly gone nowhere so far but are still ongoing. Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan have been meeting with Fox about a deal. The idea being that Bischoff and Hogan would go to Fox to start a "new promotion," which would then do a big inter-promotional angle against WCW. Meanwhile, WCW is also still reaching out to ECW about possibly working together, but Heyman has once again refused because he wants no part of anything to do with WCW.
  
• Oh yeah, speaking of....ECW is pretty jolly well fucked up right now too. Heyman has also had discussions with Fox but they haven't gone anywhere. Even though WCW is suffering financial losses the likes of which have never been seen before in professional wrestling, ECW is actually the company in the most danger right now. They're in a major financial crunch and wrestlers are weeks behind on getting paid. Several sources are said to be willing to loan ECW money or to buy a stake in the company, including WWF, which has offered several times to bail Heyman out. But the loan would come with certain conditions that Heyman isn't willing to accept because they would basically give WWF too much control over his company. Furthermore, the situation with the WWF/USA lawsuit is precarious because it's entirely possible and likely that TNN will boot ECW off the network if/when they get WWF Raw, which would leave ECW sitting on a mountain of debt without a national TV deal. Heyman is hopeful that they can survive on syndicated TV, just as they did before they had TNN, but things have changed a lot since then. If TNN ends up getting Raw, ECW's best hope is that they will be picked up by USA but that's by no means a guarantee. Given the state of the company, Dave says they're going to need a major network deal and a much larger production budget from that network if they hope to survive or be competitive.
  
• WCW's Great American Bash is in the books and after a heavily-hyped build-up that something game-changing would happen, the big surprise ended up being the heel-turn of Goldberg. Dave says the show was a huge let-down. Endless run-ins, 3 big "stunt" spots which meant none of them stood out, predictable swerves, and the 3rd straight PPV with the same finish. Goldberg's heel turn got a lot of heat but Dave says it's way too soon in Goldberg's career, plus he just came back after being injured for 6 months and the fans have been dying to see him back. But Russo was determined to turn him heel immediately because "omg swerves are awesome!" so....here we are. Needless to say, Dave thinks this is just about the dumbest thing WCW could have done. It also re-solidifies Hogan and Nash as the top 2 babyfaces in the company, because this company just refuses to fucking learn. Coming out of the PPV, it seemed like the obvious direction for the next PPV would be Hogan vs. Jarrett for the title and Goldberg vs. Nash, but in their infinite wisdom, they went ahead and gave away both matches for free on Nitro the very next night, which, to be fair, it's not like anyone buys WCW PPVs anymore anyway so it probably doesn't really matter. To show just how far WCW has alienated its fans, both Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan were in matches on this PPV where their career was at stake if they lost. Two of the biggest names in history in potential retirement matches should be an instant sellout and monster buyrate but needless to say, they only drew 4,600 paid (in Baltimore, a city where both Flair and Hogan have been huge draws during their careers) and the buyrate is expected to be among the lowest ever. Dave says try to imagine a scenario in Mexico with El Santo and Perro Aguayo in retirement matches only selling 4,600 tickets to Arena Mexico, or Inoki and Riki Choshu putting up their careers and drawing 4,600 to the Tokyo Dome. It would be unthinkable, but welcome to WCW in 2000.
  
• Other notes from the show: the opening cruiserweight match ending got screwed up because the guy who plays Rection's dad came out 5 minutes early and since his run-in was part of the finish, they had to rush to it early. How does that even happen? Kanyon turned on DDP, making it 3 PPVs in a row that DDP lost because someone betrayed him. In the words of Raylan Givens, "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." I'm just saying, maybe we should start asking why all of DDP's friends keep turning on him. Hogan vs. Kidman was about what you expect: Hogan overcoming all the odds and beating Kidman like a jobber. Ric Flair's entire family got involved in his match with David Flair, including his daughter Ashley (Charlotte) attacking Russo. Vampiro beat Sting in an inferno match, with "Sting" (a stunt double) being set on fire and knocked off the top of the video screen and Dave hated this. And of course, finally, the Goldberg heel turn.
  
• WWF is planning to slowly enact a new rule banning all moves in which a wrestler might land on his head (aside from tombstones and DDTs). The details are still scarce but it would essentially ban all forms of piledrivers, brainbusters, and other back and overhead suplexes. It won't be an immediate change, and wrestlers who use those moves will be asked to move away from them and gradually change their moveset. The idea, of course, is to try to lower the injury risk of guys dealing with neck issues who are working 4 shows a week. Dave talks about major injuries that have happened, particularly the Masa Chono and Steve Austin neck injuries which both came from botched piledrivers and nearly ended the careers of both. No word on why exactly this was decided, but Dave talks about a crazy looking DDT from the top rope that Dean Malenko did to Scotty 2 Hotty at Backlash that scared a lot of people backstage. And of course, there's also the issue with Droz being paralyzed (although that was a freak accident) and things like that. Tazz had already been told to limit his suplexes and wasn't allowed to use some of his more dangerous ones. And Perry Saturn was told to change his brainbuster finisher so he's using an elbow from the top now as his finish.
  
• The New Jersey state assembly passed a bill to regulate "extreme wrestling." It's a bill clearly designed to shut down Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Combat Zone Wrestling, while not applying to other promotions that operate in the state, like WWF, WCW, or ECW. The bill still has to pass the state senate and the governor (who has come out in support of it) before it becomes law. There's a lot of direct quotes from the bill in here that tries to distinguish between WWF/WCW/ECW and promotions like JAPW and CZW and it's pretty bullshit. Most of the things that are listed as being banned in CZW and JAPW happen regularly in the main promotions too. Dave talks about Jeff Hardy doing dives off ladders in WWF, or New Jack jumping off balconies in ECW. Those would still be fine on those shows, but Jeff Hardy or New Jack went to an JAPW or CZW show and did the exact same thing, it would be banned. Any "extreme wrestling" promoter or wrestler that allows someone under 18 into a show would be subject to a $5,000 fine. Other wrestling promotions can run shows without a license but "extreme" promotions (only CZW and JAPW) have to not only get a license to operate, must notify the public safety director 20 days beforehand to get permission in writing, and a bunch of other shit. It's also subject to a bunch of taxes that the other companies aren't. And the biggest thing is that "extreme" shows must carry medical insurance on all the wrestlers and have 2 doctors and an ambulance on site at all times. For these small companies that only draw a couple hundred fans, that's an expense they can't afford. In short, the entire purpose of this bill is to run JAPW and CZW out of business, or at least out of the state, and it looks like it's likely going to become law.
  
• A&E aired a Biography special on Hulk Hogan and I can already tell this is going to be good. Dave's itching to point out the lies and inaccuracies. In an interesting note, after the show finished filming, they got a negative response from an early screening because they never acknowledged Hogan's role in the current downfall of WCW. So they tacked on a thing at the end mentioning that WCW had declined in popularity due to promoting wrestlers who were too old. Anyway, the rest of the documentary was basically Hogan and his friends and family telling a wonderful tale of fiction. Some of it is nitpicky stuff but others, like Vince McMahon's role in Hogan's success and the 80s boom of wrestling, was completely downplayed. He told a bunch of lies about his past steroid use, basically just that he dabbled in them when it was legal. Of course, none of that's true and Hogan's own testimony in Vince's 94 steroid trial contradicts it, but whatever. Overall, it doesn't sound too bad compared to the tall tales Hogan usually tells, but Dave always delights in nitpicking Hogan's conveniently selective memory.
  
• This week's ratings fun: on Raw, the Crash Holly vs. Gerald Brisco match did double the rating of Nitro's Nash/Goldberg main event, which was Goldberg's first match since turning heel the night before. As soon as Nitro ended, 40% of fans switched over to Raw, which is much higher than the usual number.
  
• NJPW experimented with selling tickets online for a show this week. It was a 17,000 seat arena but since this was an experiment, they only put 2,000 of the tickets online for sale and they sold out within an hour, so needless to say it was a success and they'll probably start doing that more often. Watching the business slowly begin implementing technology and taking advantage of the internet is one of the more interesting parts of doing these Rewinds to me.
  
• There was a big news story in Japan due to a recent incident where RINGS president and former wrestler Akira Maeda attacked Pancrase president Masami Ozaki at a hotel. Ozaki ended up pressing charges against Maeda for the attack. From reports, apparently Maeda lost his temper for some reason and punched Ozaki and threw him into a table. Around the same time, a newspaper article ran with Maeda talking about having a friend in the Yakuza, which seems like a pretty thinly-veiled threat.
  
• A newspaper in Sydney Australia reported that promoter Andrew McManus would be running some shows, including a major show headlined by Dennis Rodman vs. Brutus Beefcake at a 19,000 seat arena. The largest crowd for wrestling in Australian history is around 12,000 for an Andre the Giant match several years back. Word is Rodman will work several shows and will be making 7-figures. Dave is skeptical of this to say the least (turns out it was sort of true. Rodman did end up wrestling one show, headlining against Curt Hennig but I'm sure we'll hear more about it when the time comes).
  
• The FX Network is airing a toughman contest featuring wrestlers against football players. Most of the wrestlers are no named indie guys. The biggest names are XPW's Damien Steele and Mustafa from the Gangstas. The Fox Family channel is currently casting roles for a show called Los Luchadores about a group of Mexican wrestlers (this was a kid's show, only lasted 1 season).
  
• Memphis Championship Wrestling has been taping shows at the nearby Sam's Town casino but because no kids are allowed in the casino, the shows have been basically empty so they're moving them back to an all-ages venue in Memphis. Several of Shawn Michaels' students are expected to start working there soon.
  
• Sable is on the cover of the new Muscle & Fitness. In the article, it described her as "the most popular female athlete in wrestling history" and Dave supposes you could make a case for it. The story also said she can bench 225 and squat 405, to which Dave says he hasn't laughed that hard in weeks.
  
• Dave notes 2 promotions that are apparently starting. One is called Urban Wrestling Federation and is gonna be based on hip-hop and target Spanish audiences and they're bringing in Koko B Ware to build it around. On the other end of the spectrum is the Christian Wrestling Federation, which is wrestling without the vulgarity and sexual stuff and at the end of the show, all the wrestlers return to the ring for a big group prayer. I'm absolutely baffled that neither of these clearly brilliant ideas are still around today.
  
• ECW's Heat Wave PPV will take place in Los Angeles which is the first time the company will attempt a west coast show. Dave thinks it might be interesting since that's XPW territory (boy, I'll say....)
  
• Regarding the incident mentioned last week with Sandman being drunk at a show in Florida and making a scene in the ring, word is it got heated backstage afterward. First, Tommy Dreamer and Sandman got into it physically but were quickly broken up. Then shortly after, Jack Victory and Sandman got into a fight that left Sandman bleeding from a cut above the eye.
  
• Notes from WCW Nitro: we're starting out at peak stupid this week. Commentator Scott Hudson did the entire show shirtless because on Nitro last week, Vince Russo got his shirt torn off and all 3 announcers made jokes about his physique. So Russo thought it would be great to order all 3 announcers do the entire broadcast without shirts to get him over as a heel. Mark Madden and Schiavone apparently refused but Hudson went along with it. They showed Vampiro talking to a mystery man in a robe in a smoke-filled room, who is expected to be revealed as Christopher Daniels. They wanted to name him God or Lord but the Turner standards and practices people shot that down and he still has no name (this ends up going nowhere but yes, it was indeed going to be Daniels before it got forgotten). They also had an idea for Vampiro to set the dressing room on fire and Asya would get burned, to set up a feud with Vampiro vs. KISS Demon (who is Asya's real life fiance). Also, the Millionaire's Club group has been rendered pretty much dead because most of the guys are out. DDP and Flair are on the shelf with injuries. Sting is out ("another vacation, what a great job he has," Dave says) and Luger is, of course, gone after walking out last week over creative differences. They had a bit where Kevin Nash's fake 8-year-old nephew Hunter (3 guesses why they picked that name) gets left with Scott Steiner to babysit and Steiner just leaves him with one of his half-naked women. They did an angle with Vince Russo shaving Ric Flair's head and Dave admits it was a really great angle and really well done (including another run-in by daughter Ashley, aka future Charlotte). But much like everything else in WCW, they left money on the table. This is Ric Flair's trademark hair that he's had for 30 years. They could have turned it into a huge deal on PPV or built up to it or something. Instead, just shaved his head with no notice on free TV. It was a great angle, but it puts all the heat on Russo and the end game is still Flair vs. Russo, which isn't exactly going to sell out arenas. Dave suspects Flair went along with it because he's trying to help David Flair get over but the kid just isn't any good and he's being pushed way beyond his capabilities.
  
• Goldberg was quoted in an AP news story criticizing the direction of WCW. "We are farther away form the kids and closer to pornography. It bothers me. Absolutely. We have a show that has a girl in a bikini in every single segment. I'm not in favor of that. I voice my opinion on everything I have a problem with. We can't shut our eyes on the kids who watch. There is a time and a place for segments where kids can watch with their parents, and we don't have it."
  
• WCW head Brad Siegel called both Bischoff and Russo in for a meeting regarding the 6/7 Nitro rating because everyone was hyping that show up and it was expected to do a bigger rating than it did, but it pretty much flopped and Siegel wanted answers. This Russo/Bischoff team isn't exactly doing great things for WCW, you see.
  
• Christopher Daniels made his WCW in-ring debut at a World Wide taping, losing to Chris Candido in a decent match.
  

WATCH: Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Candido - WCW WorldWide (2000)

• Regarding the incident a couple of weeks ago when a horse almost kicked Terry Funk during a hardcore match, turns out the horse had been traquilized beforehand (Dave believes it had been given PCP) and had also been harnessed. But it still lashed out and kicked Funk when he got too close. Dave points out how we could have seen a tragedy on live TV if the horse had kicked Funk in the head (let's be honest though: getting kicked to death by a horse in a hardcore match would be the most Terry Funk way to die. If you told me that happened, my first response would be, "Yeah that sounds about right.")
  
• Random WCW notes: WCW is once again considering bringing Dennis Rodman back in for some matches, in hopes of getting some publicity out of it. Elix Skipper was in a serious car accident and will be out for a few weeks. Lance Storm's debut has been delayed due to visa issues.
  
• WWF has hired a guy named Stuart Snyder to be the President and COO of WWF. That position used to belong to Linda McMahon but she has been given the new title of CEO while Vince remains Chairman of the Board. Snyder used to work for USA Network and will be helping lighten the workload on Linda. He'll handle more of the day-to-day stuff while Linda will focus on Wall Street and stockholder business. He will report directly to Vince and Linda (not sure how long he was with WWF, but he later became the head of Cartoon Network I believe).
  
• Judgement Day is looking to be around a 1.05 buyrate which will be the lowest WWF buyrate this year (but still, like, 10x the numbers WCW is doing on PPV).
  
• Triple H fought Chris Jericho in probably the best Raw match of the year and Dave actually says that Triple H put on a master class in how to get yourself over, get your opponent over, protect the integrity of the title, and entertain fans all at once. Dave says with a match this good, it's an easy thumbs up for the entire show, even if everything else sucks. Luckily it didn't because Benoit vs. Matt Hardy was really good too. But Dave really heaps the praise on Triple H for this one (yeah, 2000-era Triple H was absolutely on fire before injuries slowed him down and paranoia led to him burying everyone).
  
• Jim Ross sent all the wrestlers a memo saying they can't do anymore media appearances or interviews without office approval. Vince McMahon apparently feels that doing interviews with other media outlets is basically competition for their own website and they want to be in control of when WWF wrestlers talk to the media and what is said publicly.
  
• Random WWF notes: Chyna is doing a fitness video that will be released soon. Billy Gunn is expected back from injury in September. Shawn Michaels may still be used sporadically, but there are no real plans to bring him back for any weekly role.
  
• NCAA heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar signed a WWF developmental deal this week and will start in OVW this summer. Lesnar will be the 3rd NCAA wrestling champion under contract, with the other 2 being Kurt Angle and Sylvester Terkey. Dave talks about the history of NCAA champs in pro wrestling and starts listing names like Verne Gagne, Dick Hutton, etc. He doesn't know about Lesnar or Terkey, but he predicts Angle is going to end up being a top star in this business sooner rather than later (2 out of 3 did okay for themselves. The other guy probably would have done better if his name was Sylvester Ham though).
  
• Giants Stadium in New York and Soldier Field in Chicago have officially been named as 2 of the home fields for upcoming XFL teams.
  
• Curt Hennig's WCW contract expires soon and it's thought that WWF isn't interested. At 42 years old, and after years of being a big star, there's doubt that he would even want to come in and accept a lower card role. They have no plans of pushing him as a focal point of the company and think he might not be easy to work with if they want to use him to put over others. There's also the question of whether WWF would accept Lex Luger back if his current WCW issues lead to him being fired. Henning is still a good worker and while he left WWF on bad terms, they weren't unfixable. Luger, of course, left on the worst terms possible, literally walking out of a WWF house show on Sunday and showing up on WCW Nitro 24 hours later. So it's more likely that Hennig will end up in WWF than Luger, but Dave doesn't seem to think either guy has much of a shot (Hennig returns at the 2002 Rumble. Luger, to this day, hasn't stepped foot back in WWF or even gotten a HOF induction, although he has done a couple of DVD interviews and things like that).
  

NEXT MONDAY: more on AJPW/NOAH split, WWF/USA trial continues, Vince Russo "quits" WCW again, and more...

Part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
2009 was a grand year. I am 23 years old, will turn 24 late in the year. I am starting to settle down on the drugs and alcohol (not completely but a bit). I log a lot of hours and am playing at my peak level.
There wasnt much in early 09 I can remember. So I will jump to the late spring/early summer. This would be known as “The Summer of the Israelis!”
As best as we were told this is what happened. A very wealthy Israeli man gets ahold of Carbon and wants to play online. Which is illegal in Israel. So Carbon obliges. This wealthy man wants to basically run his own Israeli group. So Carbon accepts massive deposits from this guy and this guy dishes money out to generic accounts that his friends used. All of the usernames were like Momo324 or Momo474. It was blatantly obvious who was Israeli and who was not. There is now dozens if not hundreds of Israelis playing decently big stakes and some were playing nosebleeds and they were all awful. Just fucking awful.
This would be the only time I break strict BRM (after the JERRY2009 incident, fwiw I play Jerry a lot more after that he holds his own but I am winner on him). The Israelis were dragging us up to 10knl. There would be 9handed 10knl games with up to three Israelis on them. I sat those games occasionally. I should have sat them more looking back on it. My roll at this point is 200k~ and I keep 100k on Carbon and cash out excess whenever there is some (basically I had strings of checks pending at all times) so 10k wasnt exactly a comfortable loss. I only log 1k~ hands at that stake and I win a couple buy ins at most. I look back at is as a shot I should have taken more, never has there been softer 10knl online. Scout326 (google if unaware of this guy) was better than a lot of these Israelis.
My friends made great money that summer. I did too. When it was dying down a bit I had a 300k roll. Made 100k in a matter of 3-4 months. This would draw some legitimate players into Carbon though. There was always more competition after this event but it was still the best site I was playing.
I email Poker Stars at some point in 2009 asking to be unbanned and provide details of what I am doing on other sites. They oblige and give me my account back.
I grind a bit on there but the games are just not as soft. I book small win rates in FTP and PS cash games. Under 3bb100 when I was doing 2-4x that on Carbon. Was much less stressful on Carbon also. Stars and FTP were mentally draining. Was a lot of really good players at 1knl. So I basically just play Sundays on the big sites and mix games or stuff just for change of pace.
At some point in 2009 I am on a big skid on FTP and have literally 1,061$ in account. I am not going to reload it as I honestly hated FTP. FTP had the smallest average win rates of all sites that were tracked (PTR or Sharkscope/OPR the studs of online and win rates were about 70% of Stars win rates). Now logically this is not crazy as FTP was a tougher field than Stars. Stars had more players and the bulk of people who play multiple sites are competent. I have some data that I think proved FTP is goofy. I want to conceal my usernames in this story but here is what I can show you easily. If you look at high volume MTT players, go back to OPR and dig through results. Wins come in bunches. In an earlier part of this story I mentioned I went 1-1-X-2 in the Sunday 200$ Horse MTT on FTP, then dont cash it for a year? I have looked through my MTT history on FTP and when I win one tourney I almost always have two more top 2 finishes on the same day or next day. DuckU wins back to back Sundays majors on FTP which is insane (he was a stud though).
Now for the final thing that made me hate FTP. This is gonna branch off into a lovely story about my mom. She wants to learn how to play poker so I give her a secondary FTP account I made which dons the same username as my Carbon name, so I keep it concealed. I dont have sharkscope so I cant go reverify the info but she plays almost exclusively 3$ 90 man KOs. She is a terrrrrible poker player. She color tags every single player she plays with with a base color and changes the color if necessary if she likes or dislikes you. The color tags are nothing poker related, and everything like or dislike related. Aggressive players were disliked because they raised her (or people who beat her in a pot). Passive fish were liked (they never raise her) and everyone else was just the neutral color she chose. My mother plays several thousand of these (I had to xfer her money soooo many times) and loses at an impressive rate. However, if you do detailed searches on those 90 mans an odd statistic is seen. She had considerably more first place finishes than ANY other position at the final table. Which is odd, shes brutally bad (sorry mom). I will say that I in no ways ever thought or think any poker site is rigged for anyone. All sites were beatable. The best players win the money, I just think FTP had a boom switch and doom switch I suppose but nothing was aimed at anyone specifically (I guess the claim would be fish gotta eat too to want to keep playing, fate was given artificially on FTP sometimes, I say this as someone who won a good chunk of money on there over my life)
Ok back to having 1,061$ in my account after a big downer on there. Havent cashed any MTT of substance in a while. I dont play much cash on there. Its Monday and I register the 1k Monday. Usually a 300-400 player field.
I remember nothing of the early tourney or even mid tourney but I remember a couple hands from the final table. (Yea I register for total account balance and FT)
6 or 7 handed and I had been card dead, blinding away. I open rip KQhh in early for like 10bb and guy behind rips his 20bb and a big stack jams over that. So we are all in 3 ways.
All three hands shown are my KQhh, the guy behind me has 99ds and the guy behind him has JJhd
Flop animations spread out 2s 3s 9x
Gooooood game me.
Turn 10s
Oh hey I have one out now!
River Jc
Oh hey I hit a one outer!
And just like that I am 30~ bb deep and back in the mix. The 99 busted so I jump a level too.
I have a friend who plays for a living who railed that FT who still brings that hand up. Wont ever forget that hand I dont think, just absurdly dead on flop.
We get down to 3 handed and I open button with J8cc bb defends get a J high flop and I end up stacking my 20bb~ to J9 for 3rd place. Was 39k. Not bad result for case money. I remember sending pic of my account balance to a friend after registering and it was like 89 cents or something.
Some time after that my FTP account crossed over 100k but I dont recall how. I think I had a bit of a cash heater and some marginal scores in MTTs along with trading money from other sites. Just remember having 100k on two different sites which I thought was cool as every dime I ever made from poker stemmed from selling playchips on Stars years earlier.
Pretty late in 09 I move into a nice apartment and for the first time in my life buy a nice vehicle. I was driving the same truck I had in highschool (a 98 ford f150 extended cab with 300,000 miles on it with original motor) and needed a new one badly. So i buy a 2007 F150 loaded up with every feature available (was still a used truck) for 25,000$. This was the moment I felt I had made it to be honest. It felt really good making that purchase. I squander money at the bars (a trip to the bar never cost less than 500$ buying shots and shit. My friends were all day laborers basically so I gladly bought round after round of shots, wasnt really showing off I just wanted to have a good time) and on stupid stuff like RC airplanes that I wreck first flight, telescopes, hockey gear etc but I never bought anything that made me flashier, this truck was the first purchase that did that.
Late in 09 I am at a local casino on the weekend of a 1600$ mtt. Get hammered drunk (live poker was still just a vacation for me) and lose like 10k. The next day I play that MTT. Bag. The next day we come back and I go on a tear and make FT as chip leader. Continue that tear literally making zero mistakes, everything I did was right. Obviously ran well as thats how you do everything right, but I made a few good folds a few 3b/4b/5b with air that were successful, just everything lined up. I win 80k which made me feel better about the 10k I fucked off on that Friday. It remains the only MTT score live of over 25k. I dont play a ton of them, just when they are local and I skip plenty. Id prefer to just play cash forever where I get no tax forms. After this tournament I am at my peak roll basically. I am just shy of a 400k roll when I peak. Had I been disciplined with my money and put more hours in earlier who knows where I would have been. I would guess at this point in my life I had made 700k playing poker, I spent stupid amounts of money had a few pit spews just was reckless in general.
2010 starts off with a trip down under. Aussie Millions is where I was headed. I had won a seat on Carbon. I pack a bag, grab 25,000 in cash, head to the airport and am on my way.
Flying to Australia is a bit of a trip. My flight route went Tulsa to Denver to LAX then to Melbourne. I departed LAX at 10PM on Thursday to show up in Melbourne early Saturday around 9AM. 17~ hour flight and from Oklahoma a 17 hour time difference, forward. Lose a day and a half on that flight. I had taken a few xanax with me for the long flight and had a drink or two right as the flight took off and passed out. I was sitting in a row of 3 seats on the right side of the plane next to a good looking young Australian couple who were headed back from an American vacation. I had the aisle seat (there was a ton of leg room though) and I literally fall asleep an hour ish into flight and wake up at a later time. My contacts were stuck to my eyes from the sleep, could barely open my eyes and I look over and ask them how far out we were. They said “the captain just came on and said were about half an hour out”. Sweet... I slept for like 15 fucking hours, yay xanax, the first time ever drinking and xanax ever did me any good.
I get to my hotel which is a block or two from the Crown Casino and I walk down to take a look. A couple 5-10 seats were open and I hand them some cash and they say I have to exchange for Aussie Dollars. This was right after the recession and the exchange rate at that time was strong for Australia. I think they were 93 cents on the dollar.
I play some cash for a few days. I drink excessively every day. One day at a 10-20 game I am at the table with LuckyChewy BalugaWhale and several other studs (they have zero clue who I am nor need they know) but my drunken self tries to set up a prop bet. I wanna bet 5000$ that I can have a cocktail every half hour for 12 hours and book a win in the game we were at. No one wanted it (I was drunk and they likely wanted me to leave them alone, they were all buddies it seemed).
So my bad ass self decides to just do it anyways. About 6-7 hours in I am pretty fucking drunk and up like 12-13k and my 14-15k stack was made involving 9 1,000$ chips. I remember getting bored of the game that had turned nitty and started putting those 9k chips in without looking. Did it back to back hands and no one called. The third hand I look at AJo and rip the 9 1k chips in the pot again (I kinda remember thinking that this was a value rip after the previous two hands. As if someone would just pile in A8 lol) and a guy with 6-7k calls off. He has QQ and holds.
This session that I was up 12,000~ ends up felting my cash for the trip. Literally go from 12k winner to 20k loser (I was down 5k on trip from playing the 5k HU tourney).
Fortunately for me my aunt was flying down with her girlfriend (yea shes a lesbian) in two days so I called my sister had her get 25k out of my safe give it to my aunt and she would bring me some cash. The next two days I play online in my hotel room. My aunt shows up a couple days later and were back in action!
I end up drinking relentlessly and losing most of that 25k. I busted the 10k main level one barreling three streets with air. I played excellent in Australia to say the least. Probably some of the least disciplined behavior I have ever exhibited. I was in one of the most unique countries on earth for 15 days and never made it more than a mile from the casino and the only reason I made it a mile was I met up with some chick who was an exchange student at my highschool and was from Melbourne (dont worry she wasnt cute). (As a matter of fact I was highly disappointed with the quality of the women in Melbourne).
The only other things worth telling from that trip was escorts were legal, I am pretty sure the strip clubs didnt allow you to tip money to girl on stage (only buy dances) and you couldnt tip the poker dealers. A funny story about the escorts. I hire one one night. I had done this in Vegas a time or two but was always shitfaced when I had done it. I do it sober in Australia. She meets me and I am thinking what the fuck am I doing. Was weird for me. Barely mess around (brief bj was peak) and I am like I cant do this. I felt bad about paying for sex. So I give her 800$ for nothing basically. Just weirded me out knowing how bad that life is. Drunk me would never had a second thought, but sober me did.
I head home stuck 45k or something. Was a bad trip to say the least. This is about the point where things start trending down for me. Im not long after having a 400k roll (I am still near that at this point) and having a massive year (2009 I won over 250k) but some future events will set in motion my downfall, and not hard to predict Black Friday will be part of it. Will post next one soon.

Juniper Publishers- Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports

Introduction

Gaming and betting contracts are a practical expression of homo ludens: they symbolize a desire for entertainment, a ludic desire. That ludic desire of the player, symbolizing an eminently personal need, does not have enough material foundation to merit the right to legal protection, because it lacks economic interest [1]. This consideration is no small one. Governments worldwide are not keen to legalize the gambling activity. Social costs inextricably linked with gaming leisure industry underpin this widespread hesitation. Efforts concerning the creation of a sound responsible gaming model that strives to achieve the deemed harm-minimization is a definitely the goal that one ought to tirelessly pursue in this realm. This cannot be achieved without an interdisciplinary engagement between the knowledge creators (scholars, researchers, medical doctors) and the end-users (casinos, public entities, lawyers, psychiatrists, whose main purpose is to curb problem gambling).
As far as the aforementioned goes, there are not many papers that proficiently combine the legal side with the other side (medical, psychologic, psychiatric, neurological, sociological, social policy), aiming to curtail the issue of problem gambling. To shape a proper responsible gambling model it is crucially important to address the problem gambling in an interdisciplinary way. Needless to say, this is the main aim of this paper.

Background - What is Problem Gambling?

First things first. How can one outline an accurate definition of problem gambling or problem gambler? [2] Despite the existence of problem gambling, there have been ongoing difficulties with grasping a widely accepted definition of this mental health disease. Conversely, despite being often used, the legal taxonomy «responsible gambling» and «responsible provision» are also scarcely defined. «Although, differences in definition are quite important because they impact on solutions provided to overcome the problem» [3].
«For instance, the Australian Productivity Commission (1999), included a vast range of definitions of problem gambling that variously emphasized either symptoms (e.g., loss of control, chasing debts) or effects (e.g., disruption and damage to personal, family or work life). One widely accepted definition is that adopted by the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority (VCGA) which states that problem gambling occurs “where a person´s gambling activity gives rise to harm to the individual player, and/or to his or her family, and may extended into the community» [4]. On the other hand, «Problem Gambler», as far as the Canadian doctrine is concerned, is widely carved out as any person whose ability to resist the impulse to gamble has been impaired, or whose gambling has compromised, disrupted, or damaged personal family, or vocational pursuits [5].
While gambling may be portrayed by the vast majority of gamblers as a dazzling form of entertainment and an enjoyable leisure pursuit, its very nature means that there are staggering risks involved in this activity [6]. «Problem gambling (PG) behaviours (as a reminder, problem gambling is a mental disease) occur when an individual gamble in a manner that exceeds their means, for money than they can afford and spending excessive time gambling, both which can cause deleterious effects on the lives of the gambler. Such effects may include neglecting family, health, hygiene, and even employment, as well financial obligations, which highlights PG as not only an issue at the individual level, but also for wider society. Indeed, for every PG there is potential for a multitude of individuals to be negatively impacted» [7].
Background - Problem Gambling, an Overall Shift of Perspective in Relation to Research and Theory?
«Over the last 15 years or so, the field of responsible gambling (RG) has developed from a basic interest in minimising gambling problems, to a fast-growing field of research, theory, and practice covering all aspects of the gambling experience. Even in the recent past, RG was typically the remit of perhaps one or two individuals in an organisation, maybe just a minor part of the primary role. However, over the last few years and in many gaming companies, RG has become a concept embraced at all levels from the CEO down to the point-of-sale retailer, and all those in between. Whilst some of this focus has been driven through regulatory policy and an increased awareness of problem gambling across many jurisdictions, much of the interest stems from a realisation that problem-free players make for a better business. That is, long term customers are going to be those who continue to play, without problems, primarily for reasons of leisure. In short, proactive gaming companies have developed socially responsible business models, that are based on increasing the number of moderate-spending, long-term repeat customers and, that strive to avoid custom from players with gambling problems» [8].
The burgeoning growth of Responsible Gaming practice has been accompanied by an overall shift of perspective in relation to research and theory. «Previously, RG was largely influenced by a view of gambling problems that primarily adopted a medical and/or disease model, with little control or power attributed to those that were most negatively affected. However, increasing support for individual autonomy has become the main issue. This position was outlined in detail by the «Reno Model» [9] which argues that responsible gambling should be based upon two fundamental principles: « (1) decisions to gamble reside with individual and represent a choice, and (2) in order to make good decisions, individuals need to be well informed. This shift in perspective also reflects wider social and cultural changes that have seen more of an emphasis on the importance of consumers making informed purchase choices across a variety of products and services. On the other hand, technological developments have become a driving force, for both the design of games and gambling environments, as well as for tools and services that can assist players to play responsibly» [10].
However, whilst there has been a significant development in research and technological breakthroughs in the Responsible Gaming realm, the translation of valid research into wide-spread practice has sometimes been slower to take effect than initially expected [11].
This portrays a huge gap between the above-mentioned knowledge creators and end-users. This gap surely needs to be bridged. But how?
By engaging in an interdisciplinary path that ought to connect both sides of the gambling industry (medical doctors, gambling leisure industry, lawyers) that would significantly boost the benefits of the global innovation in gaming leisure industry. There is no other way. This particular issue will be addressed later and its concretes features will be also thoroughly carved out.
Background - Problem Gambling as a Repository of Interdisciplinary Contributes: The Cardinal Importance of Empirical Evidence in the Context of Electronic Gambling Machines (EGMs)
Electronic Gambling Machines (EGMs) represent a sweeping part of the gambling leisure industry. It is widely accepted that EGMs are the core of gambling leisure industry, except in the casinos of Macau, where the table games, namely the Baccarat, heavily outweigh EGMs. That´s the reason why Knowledge Creators focus have been driven towards the empirical evidence for the differential impact of gambling outcome on behaviour in electronic gambling [12]. The research undertaken in this specific field has achieved a major breakthrough: EGM´s are the realm of addictive patterns of gambling behaviour as they enhance the illusion of control of the players about the outcome of the game. Furthermore, EGM´s are markedly the domain of the loss-chasing behaviour, the core characteristic of Problem Gambling, which can be thoroughly explained because:
Ǥ Approximately 13 % of EGM gamblers meet diagnostic criteria for problem gambling (PG) which is one of the highest rates of among all other forms of gambling. EGMs are interactive, computerised gambling platforms found in many licensed betting offices, casinos, and other leisure facilities.
§ They adopt variable ratio schedules of reinforcement that subject a player to addictive patterns of gambling behaviour. EGMs have been shown to instil and maintain irrational and superstitious beliefs, as well as distort concepts of randomness and probability that can contribute to illusions of control. Such features may act in maintain or indeed contribute to the onset of PG behaviours. § In addition, EGMs offer high maximum stake and prize sizes, where an individual can bet up to £ 100 on a gambling event and win jackpots equalling £ 500 and the fact that accessibility of EGMs are abundant on the high-street, means even inexperienced and leisure gamblers are at risk of increased rate and volume of loss, irrespective of whether they would be classed as PG or not. A rapid speed of play provided by EGMs offer fewer opportunities between bets to break trancelike dissociative states gamblers experience, as well as less time to consider one’s decisions in an informed and controlled manner.
§ The rapid event cycle in EGM play also allows for a high rate and volume of loss, which is allowed to further exacerbate if ones engage in loss-chasing behaviour – as stated above, a core characteristic of PG. Loss chasing may not however, be limited to PGs, and there is potential for the fast-paced characteristic of EGM play to negatively impact on» [13]. In this regard, a recent research (conducted by renowned scientists) has investigated how these EGM characteristics interact with winning and losing outcomes and the resulting gambling behaviour, «as there is wide body of evidence outside of gambling research that suggests gains and losses have an asymmetrical impact on affect and arousal, as well as cognitive capacity and decision makingessential components to controlled and rational gambling decisions [14].
Conversely, losses squarely compared to the bulk of wins, have a larger effect on physiological arousal. Hochman and Yechiam (2011) reported significantly larger pupil diameter and increased heart beat in response to losses compared to equivalent sized wins» [15]. On another hand, if losses lead to a greater increase in psychological arousal, this may result in the gambler´s optimal level of arousal being surpassed, which may be detrimental to rational decision making (crucially important when it comes to cease immediately the gambling endeavours) and lead to a loss of control during gambling, «where the fastpaced and high stakes features of EGM play may exacerbate the harm caused by a loss of control» [16].
Having this body of evidence very firmly in mind, it is very important to implement strategies that enable the gambler to remain in control during the gambling session so that gamblingrelated decision are made in a rational manner. Moreover, that assortment of measures embodies the deemed harmminimisation strategies that the legal side of gaming leisure industry should not forsake.
Background - The Importance of Empirical Evidence in the Context of Electronic Gambling Machines (EGMs) and The Harm Minimisation Strategies: The Pop-Up Messages and The Personalised Feedback
If wins and losses do indeed result in an asymmetrical impact on a gambler´s behaviour during EGM gambling, it is important to implement harm minimisation strategies in a timely manner before harmful behaviour augment or escalate. As a consequence, prior to the implementation of any harm minimisation strategies whatsoever there is a major paradigm shift yet to be undertaken: the problem gambling should be approached in a proactive manner rather than a purely reactive one. Meaning, knowledge creators (medical doctors and scientists) and end-users (gaming leisure industry, governments, lawyers) ought to synergetically contribute to the creation of healthy gambling environments in a timely manner.
Alongside the technological developments, research into cognitive psychology of gambling has shown that irrational gambling-related cognitions and misunderstandings inextricably connected to randomness and probabilities represent some of the key ingredients contributing to the initiation and maintenance of problem gambling in general, and in electronic (or online) gambling specifically [17]. «More importantly, it has been shown that problematic gambling behaviour can be decreased in response to cognitive-behavioural therapy and other cognitive interventions. As a consequence, some organisations and gaming operators are beginning to offer players information about common gambling myths and erroneous beliefs. Furthermore, players can now access general advice on healthy and responsible gambling» [18].
«A small body of empirical research has shown that educational programs about erroneous beliefs can successfully help change the targeted cognitions. For instance, Wohl developed an animation-based educational video regarding the function of slot machines, their results demonstrated that the animation was effective in promoting responsible play as demonstrated by those viewing the video staying within their pre-set limits. The study also showed that animated educational information on slot machines can be an effective to increase user adherence to pre-set limits» [19].
Research conducted in this realm have also shown that the way the information is presented to problem gambler has a significant impact. Several studies have duly investigated the effects of interactive pop-up messages during gambling sessions either taken online or in a simple brick-and-mortar casino. Static (and colourless) messages do not appear to be as effective, whereas interactive pop-up messages and «attractive and coloured» (say animated) information can thoroughly quash both irrational beliefs and behavior [20]. Stewart and Wohl (2013) highlighted that gamblers who have received a monetary limit pop-up reminder were more prone to adhere to monetary limits than participants who did not [21].
Increasingly arising on the horizon of the gambling field is the personalised feedback, developed for responsible gambling purposes. In sum, personalised feedback is a behavioural tracking tool, for responsible gambling purposes. There are several programs that constitute a striking example of it, such as Playscan, mentor, Bet Buddy [22]. Eulogized scholars emphasized that gamblers receiving carefully tailored feedback about their online gambling behaviour are far more prone to swiftly alter their gambling behaviour (as gauged by the amount of time and money spent gambling online or in a brick-and-mortar casino) compared to those who do not receive a tailored feedback [23].
«A recent study investigated the behavioural change in 279 online gamblers that received personalized feedback after they had signed up to a voluntary service (i.e. mentor) at a European online gaming website. Those signing up to use the personalized feedback system were compared with 65, 423 matched controls. The preliminary results of that study show that personalized behavioural feedback within a motivational framework appears to be an effective way of changing gambling behaviour in a positive way (i.e., players significantly reduced the amount of time and/or money they spent gambling after receiving personalized feedback). For instance, if a player significantly increases the amount of money they have deposited over a half year time period, they received the following message: “Over the last 6 months the amount of money deposited into your account has increased. Are you spending more money than you intended? You can check the account you have spent gambling on your account page and use our helpful tools to set a daily/ weekly/monthly limit» [24].
The aforementioned example conspicuously portrays that the messages are non-confrontational, attractive, colorful, personal, and motivational. Additionally, the often-emphasized interactive aspect was taken into account through the use of a pop-up window that has been carved out into the casino operator´s gambling site [25]. Overall, the personalization approaches outlined above strive to significantly alter a person´s behaviour via behavioural feedback. Such approaches are underpinned on both the «Stages of Change”» model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) and «motivational interviewing». Specifically asserted the paramount importance of carefully tailored information. In their study they have summarized a vast array of motivational psychology literature to develop a motivational framework based on the Transtheoretical (i.e. States of Behaviour Change), «which states that individuals attempting to change their behaviour in some way go through a series of stages (i.e., pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and relapse)» [26]. For each stage, they highlighted the motivational goal (s), and recommendation (s) as to how technologies can motivate sustainable energy usage behaviours by people [27]. In sum, behavioural feedback systems enable an optimistic approach of responsible gambling, as they achieve the targeted goal of helping the players sensibly limit the amount of time and money spent gambling [28].

Discussion

The implementation of a responsible gaming model does not override an interdisciplinary approach. Quite the opposite, the foundation of a proper and sound responsible gaming model cannot be successfully applied without an interdisciplinary approach. Conversely, in order to embrace such a challenge, a collaborative approach between the knowledge creators (e.g., researchers, medical doctors and academics who effortlessly study the social and medical phenomenon of problem gambling) and end-users [29] (e.g., policy makers, lawyers, gambling industry, regulators, gamblers) is now needed more than ever. A collaborative problem-solving between knowledge creators and end-users ought to be based not only in a science-based empirical approach, as emphasized by the Reno Model, but be shaped through linkage and exchange of knowledge between both sides of gaming leisure industry.
As far as an interdisciplinary approach goes, mutual learning in the gaming industry requires the input of a wide range of stakeholders, as the aforesaid mutual learning has multiple stages such as planning, producing, and applying existing empirical research, and its concrete implementation in practice should not disregard the input of any the end-users or decision makers. An interdisciplinary approach of responsible gaming is a two-way street: researchers produce and gather empirical research and decision makers tend to apply existing or new research in decision-making. Researchers do not successfully transfer their empirical findings without the input of the decision makers; conversely, decision makers cannot benefit from an evidence-into-practice approach if they not successfully engage with the researchers.
An effective knowledge exchange involves, oftentimes (if not always) the interaction of both sides of the gambling industry aimed at accelerating the benefits of global innovation in this realm. Therefore, knowledge creators and decision makers, as they are planted itself squarely in the middle of the gambling industry, play a pivotal role both in the creation and implementation of harm minimizing strategies and, ultimately, in the construction of a functional problem gambling model.
Because of that they are the key players of the process of taking knowledge and converting it into practice; they are the protagonists of a strategic framework that intends to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
The guidelines for the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach of responsible gaming, can be summarized as follows:
a) The deemed Knowledge Exchange (KE) is a process of taking knowledge and converting it into practice;
b) KE is a form of interdisciplinary engagement between the knowledge creators and decision makers;
c) To ensure mutual learning, knowledge creators and decision makers should arrange regular meetings and issue joint statements about the major priorities of problem gambling;
d) Knowledge creators and end-users should provide guidelines and recommendations in implementing harm minimization strategies;
e) The creation of a task-force of specialists in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, law, that should jointly operate inside the casino facilities;
f) This task-force should be primarily responsible for the implementation of harm minimization strategies and complementarily should be also responsible for training the casino staff, as far as spotting, tracking down, identifying and handling the problem gamblers is concerned;
g) The needs of the end-users should be timely identified by the knowledge creators;
h) To facilitate the aforementioned goal, an atmosphere of trust between the knowledge creators and the end-users is needed;
i) To facilitate that reciprocal approach, regular briefings should be held in order to discuss preliminary results of the implementation of harm-minimization strategies, such as the aforesaid, personalized feedback, loss-limits, win limits, pop-up messages;
j) The communication channel between the researchers and the end-users should always be open, as their relationship should be strengthened through linkage, exchange and joint production;
k) The public entities, or governments, should play a pivotal role as well in establishing priorities, preferences, and goals related with the problem gambling;
l) Moreover, governments should create joint structures that, symbiotically, address the issue of problem gambling;
m) Those joint government structures should have an interdependent relationship, and they should hold meetings and briefings in a regular basis with the casino operators and their interdisciplinary teams;
n) In a regular basis, that joint structures should issue joint guidelines, and should issue joint statements in which they set up harm-minimization strategies to curb problem gambling;
o) Governments who depends heavily on the gaming revenue, for instance Macau, should take the problem gaming seriously;
p) As a consequence, a responsible gaming model should be embraced by the government of Macau, and its focus should be geared not only towards the problem gamblers but, likewise, the positive players, those who just play for fun – in the long run, those are the ones that will keep going to the casinos and not the problem gamblers;
q) Therefore, positive play should be, more than ever, an axiom that the government of Macau should take into account.
r) Focus groups constituted by decision makers from the casino industry and the problem gamblers should take place in a regular basis, in order to assess and appraise ongoing harm-minimization strategies.
s) Problem gamblers input should be taken into account; as far as setting up feasible responsible gaming features, their insight is invaluable.
t) Problem gamblers family should also participate in the process of creation of harm-minimization strategies - they are the core of the personal structure of the problem gambler, and they are the ones who can provide the muchneeded guidance and support throughout the whole process of dealing with the problem gambling.

Conclusion

Problem Gambling is now so ingrained in the culture of gaming industry as a whole that it will not cease to be a part of service industries anytime in the foreseeable future. For this very reason, an interdisciplinary approach to problem gambling poses a considerable challenge to the casino industry as a whole. For the sake of long-term sustainability of gaming industry as a whole, such a challenge should be timely embraced.