Forces Pushing For Change In Status Of Poker As Game Of Skill Rather Than Chance

It is agreed among reasonable individuals that when compared to such games of chance as roulette and craps, poker is in fact different. This is a fact that is not lost on the online poker playing patron.

In a recent trial in Colorado, determined to prove this idea, a man used this argument and was found to be not guilty of charges of professional gambling. It was the jury's decision that the prosecution had failed to prove that the game of poker was not a game of skill. This serves to provide ammunition to those poker players who are attempting to bring about a change in state and even federal laws, to have them declare poker a game of skill and not chance.

In Windsor Canada, Kevin Raley wanting to do his part in establishing cases of positive verdicts for poker and poker players says that poker players have to work together as a group regarding this. 

When presenting his defense in the above case, testimony was given by a professor of statistics from the University of Denver, Robert Hannum. Professor Hannum wrote the "Practical Casino Math" and has done a great amount of research with regard to gaming modeling and applications. In a simulation with two players in a heads-up match, Professor Hannum once ran a billion hands. In the program designed by Hannum, one player was to play his cards randomly, while the other was programmed to raise when met with a certain number of select hands.

Ninety-seven percent of the hands were won by the player that was programmed to select his hands and raise them. This provided the jury a reason to see poker as a skillful way to pass the time.

The director for the Colorado chapter of the Poker Players Alliance, Gary Reed, said that if decisions like this one were to keep coming along, this would help the cause of the alliance. Freeing a man who ran a small no-limit hold ’em game, a Pennsylvania judge last week, ruled that poker was a game of skill.

It is the goal of the Colorado chapter to see the law changed, so that poker would be declared to be a game of skill. The alliance desires to see poker defined as a game of skill. With this change, poker could be offered to people in the same that fantasy football and other games such as solitaire are played for money.

It comes as no surprise to those who like to play online poker that poker requires skill. It's only a matter of time before reasonable people will be able to get this across.

Back to Online Gambling News - March 2009
Online Casino Latest News
Online Casino News Archive