Bodog Beat

Gladiator and 30 Odd Foot of Grunts' Russell Crowe has decided to have poker machines removed from a venue that he owns. (Image Courtesy of Brittanica.com)

All the poker tournaments are done for the year, so there's not much poker news floating around. Well, there is the HUGE news about the Bodog 110 percent sign-up bonus, but we already wrote about that.

So, we're left scraping the barrel and writing ridiculously sensationalistic headlines. Anyway, movie star and all-around telephone-throwing bad ass Russell Crowe has won a judgment in an Australian court to ban gaming machines from the Redfern rugby club that he took over last year.

"We are not moralising here, we just believe that low-income areas like Redfern need less poker machines rather than more," said Crowe. "We believe a club can be successful if it caters for our members and the broad community; is a place where families can gather for conversation and good food; and the distracting din of pokies doesn't stop the conversation or drown out live music." Just wanted to take a moment to point out that the poker machines are apparently called "pokies," which is a word we thought had a completely different meaning.

Anyway, that's pretty much the gist of the entire story. Russell Crowe is removing "pokies" from his rugby club and the $1.7 million in rake that the poker machines earned him from his pocket. But we all know that Crowe is a big family man and a people person who cares about the community. Unless you're a hotel concierge in New York, in which case you deserve to die.