International: Pennsylvania judge rules Holdem “skill game”

Friday, Poker News Daily reported that Pennsylvania Judge Thomas James ruled Texas Holdem a game of skill. The ruling concerned Walter Watkins and his girlfriend Diane Dent, who were each charged with 20 counts of illegal gambling for holding $1/$2 live Texas Holdem games in Watkins’s Columbia County residence.

The Poker Players Alliance, a poker-advocacy organization, sees the ruling as a milestone and says it will set a precedent for online-poker cases in other states.

“Clearly, the judge had an understanding of how poker is played. Coming to this decision, to him, was not a far leap,” PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily. “The decision sets an excellent bar for us in the future.”

James’s decision could have profound implications for the Internet-poker industry. U.S. law enforcement has continuously pursued online poker-room proprietors since Congress enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The law, authorities argue, makes offering games like Texas Holdem over the Internet illegal.

The UIGEA prohibits Internet-gambling providers from accepting online and wire deposits from U.S. residents. However, it does not specify what constitutes “gambling” and defers to state legislators for a definition. Because some states differentiate between illegal, luck-based “gambling” and legal “games of skill,” online-poker proponents have argued that poker players’ success is primarily dependent upon how skilled they are.

These claims have been consistently undermined by the fact that no state law explicitly defines poker as a “skill game.” As a result, many online-poker advocates feared that the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s seizure of 141 poker and gambling sites’ URLs last year would result in a judicial categorization of poker as a type of “gambling.”

Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate upheld Kentucky’s right to confiscate the Web addresses in October. Yet, because the case was a civil suit concerning whether the state could legally seize Internet property it considered “gambling paraphernalia,” he did not rule on whether poker is a skill game. James’s decision is therefore the first time any government official has addressed the question of poker’s legal classification directly.

James’s decision refers to the findings of several mathematical studies, which affirm that some poker players win consistently despite the fact that all players receive an equal number of bad hands. The decision goes on to explain that a “dominant factor test” must be used in determining whether a wager is “gambling” or a “game of skill.” A game based primarily on skill, James argues, must be considered a “skill game” regardless of whether it also incorporates elements of luck. The decision concludes that “skill predominates over chance in Texas Holdem poker.”

The Associated Press reported that Watkins and Dent were arrested after an undercover Pennsylvania State Trooper participated in one of their games. According to the PPA – which helps supply counsel for poker providers facing prosecution and litigation in the U.S. – the couple did not charge a rake for their games and instead encouraged players to voluntarily tip Dent, who acted as the games’ dealer.

The pair has been cleared of all charges and freed as a result of James’s ruling. To date, no word of an appeal has been forthcoming.

phill.provance@gamblingplanet.org

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