Poker = Game of Skill – PA Judge Rules
“It is apparent that skill predominates over chance in Texas Hold’em poker,” echoed Pennsylvania Judge Thomas A. James Jr. The ruling came today in a case where Walter Watkins was arrested for running a rake-free $1/$2 No Limit Holdem cash game in his garage.
This is great news for American Poker players as it is now a case that can be cited in the fight to make poker legal once again in the United States. For years politicians have been arguing that poker is gambling, but as any good poker player knows, it takes a lot of skill to win consistently.
The judges closing remarks included references to Mike Caro’s “Secrets of Winning Poker” by quoting, “the money flows from the bad players to the strong players,” along with references to several other well-known poker books.
Watkins was happy that the charges were dropped and told the Associated Press, “It’s unfortunate we had to go through all this. We were arrested, taken out of our home. Shackled and spent a night in prison. All for playing poker.”
Now, if some of the other states like Kentucky would wake up and follow suit American poker players might finally be treated fairly, and not like the criminals they are saying they are right now.
Most online poker sites have stopped accepting US players, but there are still a handfull of American friendly poker sites.
Source: http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/pennsylvania-judge-rules-poker-is-a-game-of-skill-941/#comment-16268
Beginning of Enlightenment in Poker? - Poker Forum Canada said
am February 13 2009 @ 9:09 am
[...] was a similar ruling in PA about a month ago… I think they are using that case as a precedence for the others. [...]
James Kirtley said
am February 15 2009 @ 8:08 pm
I appreciate this blogs content and it is more powerful for poker lovers including me. I love to play online poker game.