Biloxi Sun Herald
"Serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast since 1884."
December 20, 1997, Page 1
STEADY LOSER SEEMS A SAFE BET
by Ken Fink
Picture at Grand Casino Poker Room sitting at a Holdem
Poker table
holding two Aces with a third Ace in the Flop with caption:
It's been aces high in the casinos
for gambler John Turmel, but
he folded 44 times in political elections in his native
Ottawa,
Canada. Turmel who campaigns on an "Abolish
Interest" platform, says
he owns nothing and pays no taxes. The money he makes
gambling keeps
him on the road spreading his message about a bartering
system with
separate currency.
LUCKY AT CARDS, A BUST AT POLITICS
There's an experienced politician
in town, but don't expect any
sweat on the brow of Gulfport Mayor Bob Short. Biloxi mayor
A.J.
Holloway isn't shivering. U.S. Senator Trent Lott? Forget
about
it. John C. Turmel is no threat.
"And Guinness didn't even
include the last three," said the man
who lost three elections last year alone, but ironically
makes a
living as a professional gambler. Turmel, 46, of Ottawa,
Canada, is
listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having lost
more
elections than anyone - 44 to be exact. He arrived on the
Coast two
weeks ago and plans to stay another two weeks working in the
poker-
room at the Grand Casino in Biloxi.
He has run for mayor, prime minister
and membership in Canada's
Parliament. Lost them all. So was he even close? "No,
no," said the
accomplished accordionist, poet and independent candidate.
"I got
between one and two percent of the vote. Not everyone's
stupid."
Turmel's only platform calls for the
abolition of interest rates
and implementation of a bartering system that would make it
possible.
And when he climbs aboard his soapbox, it is with boisterous
exuberance. "Most people are brainwashed from birth that
you have to
pay interest," Turmel said. "
Turmel said he can avoid paying
taxes by owning "nothing but my
socks." He claims he has not paid taxes since 1979. And
ironically,
the man called "a world-record loser" makes his
living betting on
cards. Turmel and his long-time companion, Pauline
Morrissette,
travels the country, saying in hotels and spending up to 12
hours a
day in gambling houses playing the only game he loves -
poker. THe
said he has no plans to marry.
And electrical engineer, Turmel is a
self-admitted card counter
and has developed poker "power" strategies that
assure him winnings,
he says. In fact, turmel said he once operated a gambling
house, but
in 1994, police in Canada shut it down and threw him in jail
because
gambling was illegal. Turmel claims he made a million dollars
in the
six months leading up to his arrest and gave it away. "I
knew the cops
weren't going to let me keep it, so I gave it away," he
said.
Turmel also uses money he earns
gambling to further his Local
Employment Trading System, or LETS. The computer-driven
bartering
system software is available on the Internet at
www.u-net.com/gmlets.
Turmel admits that his tax-exempt lifestyle of rambling from
hotel to
hotel will not last forever. But he hasn't finished his
campaign for
office, which he admits is a forum to publicize the LETS
program.
One thing is for sure, there will be
another election just around
the corner. "As soon as there's another election,"
said the man shoe
trademark is a hard hat, "I'll be there."