Katchalov Will Miss the WSOP, Poker Isn’t Addictive

Katchalov’s TV Commitments Rule Him out of the WSOP

The World Series of Poker is a time for the game’s finest players to converge on the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, but one grinder who won’t be joining the action is Eugene Katchalov.

Despite running hot in this year’s $10,300 SCOOP Main Event, Eugene will be taking a break from the action in order to film a new TV show in his native Ukraine.

Soon after logging off from SCOOP 2014, Eugene spoke with iGaming.org and confirmed that he’ll miss this summer’s festivities in order feature in a major TV production.

Since climbing to the top of the poker tree, Eugene, who moved from the Ukraine to the US as a child, has done everything he can to help raise the profile of game across the country of his birth.

While we haven’t yet been told which show Eugene will be taking part in, we do know that it’s a major show that will take up most of the PokerStars pro’s summer; however, it doesn’t appear to be too much of a problem for Eugene:

“I agreed upon doing a national TV show months ago, knowing it would cost me most of the summer. As much as I hate missing [the WSOP], it does take place every year. I’ll definitely be back in 2015.”

Poker Not a Source of Problem Gambling

Poker and specifically online poker pose very little risk of addiction according to a recent study conducted by the Norwegian Lotteries and Gambling Authority.

Reported by Pokerfuse and coming to the conclusion that problem gambling across Norway is on the decline, the most interesting aspect of the report is that online poker offers very little risk when it comes to addiction.

After surveying 10,000 gamblers, researchers found that only 4.7% had played online poker and that 0.2% had made large wagers ($4,600+) in the last 12 months.

Moreover, an analysis of the results using Canadian Problem Gambling Index gave poker a rating of 1.09 out of 10, which is significantly lower than other gambling activities such as bingo (8.33) that scored high on the addiction chart.

News of these results is certainly another positive marker for the industry and adds further legitimacy to the GPI’s mission to define poker as a game of skill.