September 9, 2008
Posted: 1352 GMT

The branding was not subtle. Giant banners reading PokerStars.Net surrounded the competitors in this year's Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macao event. I guess that is to be expected. Such online sites bring in much of the poker industry's revenue. They also sponsor many of the tournaments and competitors.

Watch CNN's Eunice Yoon on China's gambling habits

Watch CNN's Eunice Yoon on China's gambling habits.

The appeal, according to some players, is that anyone can play online. No intimidating casino, no need to travel - poker from the comfort of your own home.

But you can use online poker as a stepping stone. The appropriately named Chris Moneymaker, one of the game's biggest celebrities, won the 2003 World Series of Poker, and $2.5 million, after qualifying online.

From the players I saw in Macao, poker players pretty much run the gamut. Young and old, men and women. There was even one guy dressed as a joker.

So here come the questions. Do you play online poker? Would you play at the casino? Is there something about the Internet that boosts your confidence?

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Karen   September 18th, 2008 120 GMT

I wonder why any financial institution would be so unwilling to work with homeowners to keep them in their homes. From an outside looking in is seems to me that, in order to bring confidence back into the markets, one would want to ease fears of things getting worse, things will get worsr if banks who hold these mortgages, to just put these people into fixed rate loans. Let me explain. I also am facing a reset of my mortgage in december. right now I am paying 91/2 percent interest. I have lost about 30,000 in equity so refinancing is out of the question, however if banks would just put people into better loans they probably would ride out the stabilizing time for prices to come around. As it sits right now only 46.00 dollars a month is going to principal. my payments are 1846.46 a month you do the math. I would love to only pay 1200.00 to 1300.00 a month that would keep me in my home. The banks are making so much money off everyday people. So help us, stay in our homes, and the government wont have to bail out all these big money institutions. this would even work for people who abused the past mortgage rules, by allowing them to keep the properties as perhaps rentals. if the price is right for themthey will stay. so stop being so greedy, lord knows someone is making about over a grand a month in profits off me alone. now multilpy that to the hundreds of thousands of people who are losing out. the ones who were keeping the markets stable in the first place

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