Score One for Poker

January 27, 2009

It seems that poker players have scored an impressive victory this week, and the Poker Players Alliance is thrilled. It would seem that Pennsylvania is all about the poker playing, which is surprising since it is a state where any gambling other than slot machines is pretty much frowned upon, and if you want to play table games you have to go over state lines. However, the courts are on the poker players’ sides in this one.

Perhaps it is because the name of the game is Texas Hold’em, perhaps it is because it should be considered a non gambling type game, but for whatever reason, the courts have ruled in the poker players’ favor. A Pennsylvania Judge, Thomas A. James, Jr. of Columbia County has ruled that the poker game is a game of skill, not of chance. This means that poker playing is now legal in the state.

The PPA says that this ruling has now set precedent that they can use in other states and other situations to battle the common belief that poker playing is a game, not of skill but of chance. The judge talked about the literature that was available on the subject of poker, and how it tells you how to improve your game. The judge said that if you can change the outcome of the game, then it is a skill based game.

James was presiding over the case where a man was accused of running an illegal gambling game out of his garage, and he and his attorney argued that he was not offering illegal games for games of skill are not illegal. After the ruling, he was released as was the dealer of the poker game who was arrested at the same time.