Hello,

I've been playing online poker for about 8 years, and have put a lot of time and effort in to improving at the game. In this time I have actually made money – something I believe would be nearly impossible over such a large sample at sports-betting or casino games. I consider poker more of an intellectual battle like chess rather than a gambling game, although I admit there is a large amount of luck involved.

I believe that due diligence has not been done and we have been inadvertently been swept up along with the major offshore roulette, blackjack, and sports-betting sites where it is impossible or near impossible to win at. Online poker is in my opinion far less harmful than other forms of gambling for a number of reasons including: - You can bet incredibly small amounts. For example Pokerstars has $1 or less buy in tournaments that can last a number of hours. Whereas if you go to the casino, the minimum buy in for a poker game is $100 and you can lose it in minutes. Sure you can bet and lose big amounts on an online poker site, but by removing online poker you are removing the opportunity for people to play for small amounts of money. - You can actually be a long term winner at poker. I am living proof of this and can back this up with my historical statistics and charts if need be. I like to compare it to stock market investing – it is a zero sum game(ignoring brokerage fees and commissions charged by poker sites) and there will always be winners and losers.

Despite taking a serious approach to the game, I have a great time chatting, joking and engaging in some light-hearted banter while winning and losing money against players from all over the world. After playing with them online, I have met up in real life with people from China, Belarus, Canada, Korea, and Japan and have become good friends with some of them.

I would understand if the government wanted to regulate and tax online poker, but to ban it in its entirety seems like a move that has been made without much thought. I hope that changes to the legislation are made in this enquiry.