Sordid State of Poker
The world of poker continues to garner its share of attention from within the courts of law around the world. Great Britain on Tuesday determined that poker is a game of chance, not skill, in convicting Derek Kelly of breaking Britain's gaming laws. Kelly is the manager of a 23,000 member private card club (Gutshot) and was accused of taking a cut of the profits from poker games without a license after he determined the United Kingdom's Gaming Act of 1968 only covers games of chance, not skill based games such as poker and chess. Unfortunately the judge and jury disagreed with the skill part after the prosecutor followed the line of reasoning that poker is a game of chance as a result of the random shuffling and distribution of the playing cards. (Does this mean that card cheats are exempt since the shuffle and dealing of cards in crocked games is not random?)
Probably the main reason this conviction was a must was the possibility of opening the door for "unregulated" poker if it was determined to be a skill based game. Poker would have been granted an exemption from the UK's 1968 Gaming Act if it was established that skill is part and parcel of the game of poker. According to some doomsayers, poker would be "out of control" and free to run rampart spreading ruin across the gambling landscape. The proceedings of Tuesday court was closely watched by the London's 26 poker clubs and the scores of online poker clubs that currently generate revenue in excess of $100,000,000 a day. The millions of online poker players also watched the ruling in preparation of Great Britian's plans to begin licensing online poker sites in September of this year.
Poker Stars, the Isle-of-Man based online poker site, continues to defy the US government's recent legislative ban on online gambling and continues to allow US based online players on its' site by maintaining the same line of reasoning, poker is a game of skill. Court observers are keeping a close eye on a similar case in the US of David Carruthers, founder of BetonSports Plc. Carruthers, who entered a not guilty plea January 11th, is accused of using interstate telephone lines in the US for purposes of placing sport's bets.
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