00:00I mean, poker's always been a part of American culture.
00:04The kindling that got it all started, I think, is just that poker is such a great game.
00:09Poker right now is bigger than the Super Bowl.
00:11This is simply a fad.
00:13Sport of Kings is high-stakes poker.
00:14There are people who are clearly performing for TV.
00:18He went from nothing to a millionaire overnight.
00:21That's what people want.
00:22Kind of like lose respect for money, I guess, when you make that much money that easy every month.
00:26It was like the end of the world in poker.
00:27It just, everything stopped.
00:30What do you admit it or not, we're all dreaming that moment when you can change everything,
00:39when you can reinvent yourself.
00:42There is something cool about being good at poker.
00:44There is something that is absolutely linked to the American psyche.
00:48Poker players are the last American cowboys.
00:51The entire American character at the heart of it is all built around,
00:54I'm going to bluff that this is who I am and then that's who I'm going to be.
00:57There is a mystique about people who can control their own destiny through gambling.
01:01In our DNA from the start is this adventurous group of people.
01:06I wish I was broke most of the time. That would be at least getting me up a level higher.
01:10Anyone can play. All you have to do is have the money to buy in.
01:13When I was just floored, I couldn't believe that people were getting autographs from professional gamblers.
01:18Moneymaker.
01:19The Moneymaker Effect.
01:20His name was Moneymaker.
01:21I was this big, heavy, drunk, degenerate gambler.
01:24Hollywood can't write a script like that.
01:26I don't know why it's so big right now.
01:28Things don't grow that don't have growabilityness to them.
01:31The Department of Justice indicted the founders of the world's three largest internet poker companies.
01:37Our government's a squirrely little bunch. It's all about money. They want more money.
01:41And I started seeing tweets talking about what's going to happen to my money.
01:45No one saw this coming.
01:46It's just inconceivable.
01:48They remind me of days of prohibition.
01:50The law didn't get passed for reasons of morality.
01:52Well, if you follow the rule of follow the money, the casinos have a vested interest.
01:57There's kind of this myth out there that playing online poker is illegal.
02:00I think that the lead of our story was, like, not about cheating, but about bluffing.
02:05Internet poker was a lifeblood for hundreds of thousands of people.
02:10It turns out that really, you were bluffing. There is no money. Money's gone.
02:15Once again, you know, the hero of the story was also cheating.
02:20And that's just not, the heroes of poker don't cheat.
Comments