Online Poker at 38,000 feet, The Nevada Legislature

Before I go on a small tirade, I would like to mention my trip from NY City to Las Vegas last night. I have been flying on a relatively new airline, Virgin America, which not only has all new planes with reasonable prices, great services and on board entertainment, and now Wifi. I played of Full Tilt while at 38,000 feet for the 5-hour trip. It really made the time pass quickly and it worked flawlessly. Interestingly enough I met a couple of guys across the aisle from me who were also playing on Full Tilt.

Well, I'm back in Vegas and I have to say it feels good. Of course with the time difference I'm up early and have turned on the morning news. Two of the lead "news" stories here in Nevada are relaxing smoking regulations and being compelled to wear seat belts while driving. I have to say, I almost feel like I'm in a time warp. Plain and simple, seat belts save lives. The argument that you could be trapped in your car by your seatbelt have been shown to be statistically negligible when compared to the lives and injuries saved by wearing it. So that Nevada Legislature is debating the topic today, and I guess the argument that it's my life and if I don't want to wear a seatbelt I shouldn't have to doesn't take into account the public healthcare cost for the associated increase in injuries.

The other topic of relaxing the smoking ban in bars and restaurants is even more interesting. I mentioned last year how much I liked casinos in Canada where no smoking is permitted and I received hostile emails, but here goes anyway. Nevada lawmakers are considering relaxing no smoking regulations to help stimulate business in bars and restaurants. Where do I even begin? Just maybe it's the economy which has slowed things down, I cant believe this is 2009 and the public health risk of second hand smoke is still being debated.

I haven't decided a game plan for today, there is a 5k event here at the Bellagio, which if it gets at least 100 players, I'm in. If not, I guess it will be cash games.