The Wide World of

No, not sports with the poor schmuck tumbling off the ski jump; we’re talking poker. We argue whether poker is or isn’t a sport. What we neglect are adjectives. You might consider collegial, familial, fraternal, or whatever other ‘ial’ you come up with. We are missing the secret handshake but we have the secret language down pat.

I read TonyG’s current article on the business of tournament reporting and his interesting question about the non-competitive aspect of the awarding of media exclusivity to Cardplayer by WPT. He wonders if there was a benefit to shareholders of WPTE. (They haven’t seen much recent benefit.) That’s an interesting question. It is even more timely in our current, business climate.

Lyle Berman is an interesting man from an interesting family. My first contact with them was back at the start of the sixties. His father or uncle came through our area each year showing their line of leather goods. My family sold them in a gift shop they were partnered in. Each spring, Mr. Berman would show up with the new line and get a starting order. It was a family business at the time but later sold with Lyle staying on as CEO. The seed money for that business came from his grandfather who was a rum runner who’s fast boats challenged the revenuers on Lake Superior. Suburban Minneapolis where the family headquartered was on their truck route south to the populated markets for their hooch.

“The syndicate” of the day was transitioning. The earlier strength of the Irish and Jewish groups was being challenged by the Sicilians and the “Cosa Nostra” ended up winning. Today we have other recent immigrants challenging their hold. Traditionally, illegal activities is one of the first markets immigrants compete in. It is a tradition going back to such important families as the Kennedy clan. A lot of the seed money for upright businesses came from servicing our human frailties. In a sense, the businesses that those business created were merely money laundering operations.

Nowhere is that more apparent than Las Vegas. It was a sleepy railroad stop until the Hoover Dam brought a population to build the dam. Las Vegas serviced the needs of those making good money and looking for a good time. (Sound familiar?) The next spurt came after WWII with the need to launder money building the strip. These weren’t NYSE companies but privately held. That changed with the next spurt which brought about Milken’s junk bonds fueling the next growth and the move to mainstream markets. Harrahs, MGM etc. are the product and controlled not only by the gaming commission but the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lyle and his family very much paralleled the Las Vegas pattern. This is his Forbes sheet:

Lyle Berman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. since June 1998 and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grand Casinos, Inc. (the predecessor to Lakes) from October 1991 through December of 1998. Mr. Berman served as President of Lakes from November 1999 until May 2003. Mr. Berman has also served as the Chairman of the Board of WPT Enterprises, Inc., a company in which Lakes owns a majority interest, since its inception in February 2002, and had served as its Chief Executive Officer from February 25, 2005 until April 1, 2005. Mr. Berman is also Chairman of the Board of PokerTek, Inc. since January 2005 and Mr. Berman served as Chief Executive Officer of Rainforest Cafe, Inc. from February 1993 until December 2000.

There have always been two economies in operation. And their needs aren’t always typical of the Harvard Business School guidelines. One hand washing the other makes good business sense in many a business. As those businesses grow and prosper, they run into the SEC which is there to level the field. Of course the playing field is never quite level, playing fields are rounded to allow for runoff. The SEC covers the big picture. So, whether it is Cardplayer and the WPT or Cardplayer and the WSOP or Bluff/PokerNew and this year’s WSOP, there is a business aspect but there is also that other side that humanity always keeping active. Many make good business sense. They impact the business only slightly in cash while adding to the intrinsic side of the balance sheet’s good will catchall. Over time though, people start considering it more than the normal cost of doing business. And we get the excesses of recent years personified by the prison terms for a number of CEOs. And we are seeing profitable companies that were created because the money was there become leaders in the stock market. Now we are seeing attempts to move them once again out of the public glare. It is heading back to the people with the most street smarts.

Whether it is money laundering or junk bonds, things tend to cycle. Behind it all is the other truth that doesn’t appear on business plans or as part of standard accounting practices. Las Vegas caters to our whims and fantasies. But, like walking down the street viewing the Fremont Experience, you are on a turn of the corner away from real life should you fail to keep your head about you.

So, whether it is Tony, or Otis seeing his local game come with a gun to the head, or you and I doing something without proper forethought to ruin our gambling run; at times the real world comes up and reintroduces itself. Hopefully we come back from our momentary lapse fairly intact.

You all be careful out there now; you hear? –Hill Street Blue

But, maybe the better quote comes from Jim Croce that starts “Don’t step on superman’s cape; don’t spit into the wind…”

ADDENDUM:

We all browse Bartlet’s Familiar Quotations from time to time. I imagine mine from the previous line is there. Well there is one that stays more current. That is The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. The latest introduces not a new Hagel, Socraties or founding father. Meet the Simpsons.

From Homer we get: “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try.” and “Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the internet and all.” But I think my favorite is Groundskeeper Willie’s “Bonjour, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”

If you aren’t into the Simpsons, you might enjoy a quote from Linda McCartney. “I don’t eat anything with a face.” Looks like Paul had a rather puritanical marriage.

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Don’t forget today is PokerStar’s World Cup and you can watch it here starting today and running through Friday. Countries represented are United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Romania and Mexico

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 5:32 am and is filed under Journal, Poker Other. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.