Whenever we sit around our kitchen tables playing a game of
poker, the legality of the sport may never even cross our minds. Although our small get-togethers are
certainly not enough to warrant a crackdown by federal authorities, the Illegal
Gambling Business Act gives the government the right to prosecute gambling in
some circumstances. Online poker
organizations have been the biggest culprits, as three of the largest poker
websites – Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and Absolute Poker – were shut down
last year.
The case making the most noise this year was that of
Lawrence Dicristina, a New Jersey electronics dealer whose warehouse was raided
after authorities suspected he was operating an illegal poker ring. After hearing testimony from several
statisticians and poker players, Judge Weinstein concluded that poker is a game
of skill, ruling in favor of the defendant and rendering the card game exempt
from gambling laws.
Legally speaking, gambling is a game “predominated by
chance,” and while chance does play a role in poker, skill plays an even bigger
role – and that makes all the difference.
Some players do get lucky sometimes, but no player can get lucky all of
the time. Professional poker players
don’t make a living off of luck – that’s just not possible. Have you ever heard of a professional
roulette player? Or someone who is
really good at playing slots? There is a
reason why the same players end up in the final tables at the World Series of
Poker year after year – they are consistently better at the game than the rest
of us.
Poker is not a fool’s game.
Fools trust their luck too much; they arrive overconfident and usually go
home with empty pockets. We have all
fallen into this trap, blaming our losses on “bad luck.” Chance is always there, but sometimes we give
it too much credit.
Skill versus chance – it is funny how semantics can carry so
much weight. Weinstein’s ruling sets a
legal precedent that can spark the resurgence of online poker play, which raked
in over $20 billion at its peak in 2010.
Add that to the millions wagered annually at small casino tables and big
televised tournaments, and you’ve got a giant pot of revenue that eclipses some
of America’s largest professional sports.
Isn’t it amazing how the law, as argued by a few attorneys
and interpreted by a single judge, can hold such sway over us all? How it can create a flood of opinions and
news reports online, in the newspapers, and on the airwaves? How it can open the gates to billions of
dollars of revenue? And all of this over
a few words, over a simple card game that many probably don’t even consider a
sport. The weight seems
disproportional.
Why are we even having this debate? The question is not whether poker is skill or
luck, or even whether poker constitutes gambling. The real question is, Why does gambling have
a bad name in the first place? How does
the predominance of “chance” make a game worthy of social disrepute? It doesn’t.
Sure, people stand to lose lots of money. But that does not mean it’s a “bad” game, and
certainly should not render it illegal.
The risk makes it more exciting. It
is engrained in our society, and you can see it in every sport we play. It makes us sweat, cry, scream, and go
crazy. It gives us an adrenaline
rush. And we are not just risking an
interception or a few “points,” we’re putting real money on the line. Real dollars – you know, the stuff that we spend
hours working for, the stuff that pays for life. A poker hand feels so real, so significant.
Poker is full of risk, and so is every sport we play. So why should it be treated any differently? If people like it, let them do it. They can pay for the consequences. Literally.
