Reason.tv: Why It's Time to Legalize Poker - David "Doc" Sands on Gambling, Pot, and Freedom

Just a few years out of college and David "Doc" Sands has already racked up nearly $2.5 million winning poker tournaments, and this January he became the world's top-ranked online tournament player.

Sands sat down with Reason.tv's Ted Balaker to discuss Sand's love of poker and individual liberty, the parallels between marijuana and gambling policy, and the hypocrisy embedded in America's gambling laws. Says Sands, "At the same time they're facilitating lotteries, they're telling us that online poker is a game of chance that we shouldn't be allowed to play."

Approximately 9.12 minutes.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning, Adam Jensen, and Paul Detrick. Edited by Manning.

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Comments

[J sub D]

Count the lottery commercials on TV.
Then count the PSAs on getting help for gambling problems.

The only conclusion that can be reached from this disparity is the state government does not give a crap about the citizen's well being or helping them make informed decisions, they just want your money.

[J sub D]

The above is not to be construed as supporting outlawing gambling. Government run gambling is what I disapprove of.

[Alisha]

We've got a great Libertarian candidate for Governor in Georgia, John Monds. He's emphasizing decriminalization of Marijuana and bringing Casino Gambling and Parimutuel Betting to Georgia. The democrat actually said he refuses to support "any industry that will compete with the state lottery", because it isn't in our best interest. The state lottery funds an education grant to all of our students with a B average or better. Guess how many take the money and drop out first quarter?

Our best interest, indeed.

[Kristen]

So much hotness in that video...it's libertarian p orn!

[Paul]

Reason.tv: Why It's Time to Legalize Poker

Slow down. We're still working on picayune changes to definitions of medical marijuana.

[me]

Does anyone else find it beyond bizarre that here, in the sweet land of liberty, people have allowed themselves to be dictated to for the better part of century what "vices" they are allowed to participate in? Isn't it bitterly ironic that a people who pride themselves on being "free" would allow themselves to be told what they may or may not ingest and what kind of consensual recreational activities they may engage in? How can anyone The Pledge or sing The Star Spangled Banner with a straight face?

[LibertarianJRT]

I ask myself this question daily. I also ask how anyone can simultaneously believe that government should be limited at home and intervene militarily abroad, and further how they can think that intervention abroad is any less destructive than the intervention at home.

And I reject the "if we don't intervene in the middle east there will be another holocaust" argument in its face. If that is your motivation: Rowanda! Rowanda. Rowanda. Rowanda.

Darfur.

[Jorj X. McKie]

But least we need no longer fear the specter of possible terror: that most dreaded of potential emotions.

[Sy]

"How can anyone The Pledge or sing The Star Spangled Banner with a straight face?"

Maybe because Francis Bellamy was a straight up communist dickwad.

[Sy]

"How can anyone The Pledge or sing The Star Spangled Banner with a straight face?"

Maybe because Francis Bellamy was a straight up communist dickwad.

[Snag]

Like the Mafia, the government is waking up to big money being made on its patch, and it wants its cut.

[nike shoes UK]

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