ShareIn the last 12 hours the internet has been awash with social media posts and news articles regarding Hamas' attack on Israel, the torture and the murders of Israeli civillians.
Such scenes are very distressing and although it is not the place of a poker media publication to offer political commentary, as a community it is our place to enusre that the our beatiful game and those representing it as portraying a palatable image to the world at large.
Sam Grafton is an English poker professional, sponsored by the indsiuputable market leader, PokerStars who are owned by Flutter PLC. Flutter is the parent company of Betfair, PaddyPower, SkyBet and AdjaraBet to name a few.
Today Mr Grafton shared a Palestinian flag in the post below.
This post is quite open ended, but it is undoubtedly support for these attacks and as Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind".
The perception of those who commented on the posts is that Mr Grafton is taking pleasure in these atrosicites and just as an in many other conflicts, there is should be no place for ambassadors of poker or any other game, or sport for that matter to support such things. Poker players on social media who replied to this post, are of the sentiment that this is distateful and we can find no other social posts where for example any other type of violence (no matter who perpertrates it) is supported in this manner.
Various posters have called for PokerStars to cease their sponsorship and involvment with Sam Grafton as it is distasteful, uncalled for and unprofessional.
At HSDB our thoughts and prayers are with the all civiliians and innocent people who find themselves in the crossfire of any conflict. There should be no place in our community for supporting such events,regardless of whatever the perceived justification might be.
