Is profiting from problem gamblers immoral? Ethics and morality among professional high-stakes online poker players

Online poker is like other electronic gambling formats in that large amounts of money can be quickly lost, which can lead to a number of harms for problem gamblers. However, unlike most gambling formats, it involves direct meetings between skilled and unskilled players, meaning that sufficiently skilled players can have successful professional careers. Do successful professionals ever feel concern for losers’ well-being, and how do these concerns compare across in-person and online environments? In this research, we interviewed 19 professional online poker players about ethical dilemmas in poker. The sample was divided when it came to how common it was to meet problem gamblers, while most participants agreed that it was hard to spot problem gambling when playing poker online. Many participants did not find it easy to know what to do if they knew an opponent was a problem gambler. There was a clear code of conduct among informants, in that they should not actively search for problem gamblers or try to lure them into a game in a predatory way. A relevant factor was whether a problem gambler had lost their ‘rent money’ (money they could not afford to lose). Some of our informants had actively confronted suspected problem gamblers and advised them to quit or leave games so that they would avoid playing against them. For some informants, these encounters led to moral self-examination. This study adds to the underexplored research area of the ethical dilemmas surrounding those who profit from gambling.