Poker Ruled a Game of Skill, Not Gambling

Poker is a game of skill and is not considered gambling. That is the ruling of a Danish court that was faced with the decision to convict or acquit the president of the Danish Poker Association on illegal gambling charges.

The ruling has no direct effect on American poker, but the ruling is important to the game of poker in general because the judge in the case was convinced that "You can win in poker based on being clever enough to hide your strategy, even though you might have a fairly poor hand."

The prosecutors in the case argued that although poker has elements of skill involved the negative effects of playing poker on a player who may have tendencies to become addicts are too great to overlook.

Frederik Hostrup, the president of the Danish Poker Association, was brought up on charges of organizing illegal gambling events. Hostrup had been sued by hotel and restaurant trade organisation, Horesta, on behalf of the Danish nation's casinos and Hostrup claimed he was not guilty because poker is not gambling.

According to Danish law, gambling is defined as games where the organizer is attempting to 'achieve a commercial economic gain'.

Hostrup's attorney, Henrik Hoffmann, told a Danish newspaper that the ruling legitimises poker, which has become a world wide phenomenon over the past three years.

"Poker has become a sport of the people," he said. "There are between 200,000 and 300,000 Danes who play poker at least once a week and more than half a million who play on a regular basis."

Meanwhile, at any one time at Full Tilt Poker a player can be accompanied by more than 30,000 other players simultaneously playing on the site's software. The large majority of those players are American.

July 22, 2007
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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