“Law enforcement authorities contend poker tournaments that are advertised, and held for profit and not for the benefit of a licensed charitable organization, are illegal.
No charges have been filed against Burns, who contends his poker tournaments are not illegal.
In an interview, Burns confirmed that he operated the card games but said he violated no state law. He contends that face-to-face poker tournaments are not illegal in Pennsylvania because poker is a game of skill, not chance.
“The final table of the World Series of Poker’s main event shows, once again, that poker tournaments are games of skill.
Courts have developed tests over the last couple of hundred years to determine whether a particular game is predominantly chance or skill. If courts and prosecutors were honest in applying these tests, at least no-limit Texas hold’em tournaments would have to be considered skill contests and not gambling.
Categories: Legal · Tournament · WSOP
“Is poker a game of skill or chance? At Duplicate Poker – their version of Texas Holdem is all skill, and that means almost all US residents can sign up, play, and even make credit card deposits!
In the post-UIGEA online poker world, some poker rooms have elected to carry on with business as usual – albeit while their US clientele struggle to move money on and off the site. However Duplicate Poker, has tweaked their product to allow US residents in most states (sans Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont) to play for real money without the legal hangups.
Categories: Legal
“Robert Wexler is a Congressman from the 19th District in Florida who recently introduced what could be a very important piece of legislation for poker players. The Skill Game Protection Act seeks create a ‘carve out’ in the current legislative environment such that poker could be classified as a game of skill, and in turn citizens would be permitted to play poker on the Internet. Carve outs currently exist for things like horse racing, and lotteries on the internet, and the Skill Game Protection Act seeks to add poker to that list. We sat down with Congressman Wexler recently to get his views on the state of the union of poker on the hill.
(more…)
“A municipal court in the suburb of Lyngby Denmark declared that poker is not merely a game of chance but also requires skill, and is therefore legitimate competition, reports the Copenhagen Post on the ruling made last Friday.
“Poker was officially recognized as a sport three months ago by the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports, said Dmitry Lesnoi, head of the Russian Poker Federation. This status will allow poker to be played — for fun, not for money — in sports halls around the country even after 2009.
Lesnoi insists these post-ban poker games will not involve gambling, stressing the intellectual nature of the game.
“It is a game of skill, not chance,” he said. “Like chess.”
Lesnoi saying the new law is a chance for poker to change its image.
“Twenty years ago, billiards had a reputation as a sport for con men,” he said…”
The Moscow Times (06/29/07)
Plan Would Provide Rightful Protections to Online Poker Under the Law
Washington, DC (June 7, 2007) – The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), a grassroots advocacy group of nearly 550,000 members, today enthusiastically supports Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) legislation that clarifies existing law and provides rightful protections for poker and other games of skill under both the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and the WIRE Act of 1961.
“Congressman Wexler’s bill is a positive development for the millions of American poker players who enjoy one of our nation’s great pastimes,” Senator Alfonse D’Amato, PPA Chairman of the Board. “Poker and other games of skill have fallen victim to bad public policy. Wexler’s plan will give skill games the rightful protection they deserve and it will require the proper safeguards to protect children and those prone to abuse.”
Categories: Legal
“Poker players, whether they play online or in brick-and-mortar casinos and card rooms, agree that winning consistently depends largely on skill, even though an element of luck comes into play with the turn of the cards.
The “luck or skill” question could factor heavily in a judgment on whether a ban on Internet gambling—particularly poker—is legally justifiable. Under U.S. common law, games that are predominantly chance are considered gambling, while those that are mainly skill are not.
Case law has cut both ways. In 1989, a California circuit-court judge found poker to be a game of skill. The decision kept the state’s card rooms open. In 2005, however, a North Carolina state judge called poker a game of chance, allowing local authorities to shut down a card room. Debate is likely to intensify now that Barney Frank has introduced a bill to reverse the ban on online wagering passed by Congress last year…”
Reason.org’s Out of Control (05/07/07)
Categories: Legal
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