Should Journalists, Reporters and Bloggers Be Barred From Sitting Close to Poker Tournament Tables in Action Because of Cheating Scandals?

If you have been following this blog, you know that there have been a handful of major poker tournament cheating scandals involving players teaming up with journalists and bloggers, who used cameras and signals to peek at other players' hole cards and relay the information to their cohorts playing at the tournament tables. In Holland and elsewhere in Europe some well-known poker pros have been disqualified from tournaments for this type of poker cheating.

So, should journalists, bloggers and other types of reporters not be allowed too close to the poker tournament action? I think barring them would be going too far. As in all groups linked to poker tournament cheating, the percentage of those journalists and bloggers involved in cheating at the tables is very low. Now that this type of cheating has been uncovered several times, it is likely to decrease and even go away on its own.

So let's keep allowing journalists and reporters their intimate contact with poker--as it is very good for the game and does more good than harm.