Online Poker Advocates Get Knocked Off Their High Horse
The Poker Player Alliance has done everything they could do to separate themselves from the rest of the gambling world over the past few months, but a three person Panel of Appeals in North Carolina ruled this week that poker is a game of chance, not skill, just as slots, blackjack, roulette, and craps are games of chance.
When fighting to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act the Poker Player Alliance has taken the position that poker is a game of skill, so it therefore should be exempt from the UIGEA. When the gambling community rallied together to protest the UIGEA, the Poker Player Alliance did not join the fight, as they do not want to be associated with other gambling forms. However, poker is one of the oldest forms of gambling and the North Carolina Panel of Appeals upheld that notion.
The court was ruling on a case that was appealed to it by Howard Fierman, who wanted to open up a poker club called the Joker Club in Durham County, North Carolina in 2004.
Jim Hardin, the attorney general of N.C., told Fierman that the club would be illegal, Fierman then sued the county on the grounds that poker is a game of skill and should not be considered a gambling game.
The case was first heard in county Superior Court on July 1, 2005 and the Appellate Court on Aug. 23, 2006. The ruling was made final on May 1st of 2007.
In the case so called poker experts were brought in to testify. One was from the online poker rag Card Player Magazine. He testified that poker did involve skill, although there was also luck involved. Another witness explained that he has played poker for over 40 years and he also explained that although skill is involved, ultimately luck prevailed.
The best point to prove that poker is ultimately a game of skill is when the poker expert of 40 years explained how he saw on TV a game where the player had a 90% chance of winning, yet still lost his hand to a player who had a 8% chance of winning.
The three person panel ruled against the game of poker as a game of skill in a decision that should finally put to rest the Poker Player Alliance's theory that poker is not really on the same level as other gambling games.
May 3, 2007
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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