Originally Posted by Octal
That's a horrible under-statement. The Smith-Morra seems sound (Karpov even said it was alright!), but with proper play black can sustain a fine position a pawn up. With this in mind, Sicilian players will generally learn a small amount of theory on this variation, thus taking away the surprise value (which alot of unsound gambits rely on, for example: Latvian, Blackmar-Diemer, Elephant, and the fascinating Halloween Gambit). Secondly, when I play a gambit, I want open files directed to my opponents king. White's open c-file won't help him at all with this, as black never castles queenside in the Sicilian. Since white's c-file, and black's c-file are both open, white won't be castling queenside either, so it can be harder to throw a pawn storm at your opponent's king. Yet white still gets good play, even with these things considered.
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Many Sicilian players think that the SM-gambit is unsound, but I haven't seen an analysis yet with a refutation. Even GM's don't agree about its soundness. Nigel Davies thinks that the SM-gambit is nothing but a bunch of cheap tricks, while Dorian Rogozenko recommends in his book "Anti-Sicilians, a guide for black" to decline the SM-gambit with 3...Nf6 because he can't see a way to neutralize white's activity. Besides, even if a gambit is unsound you can still play it if your opponent is not prepared for it. Most Sicilian players don't know the theory and I have won many exciting games with it.