Poker is Skill Based, End of Story

February 25, 2009

Poker enthusiasts have been fighting for so long they probably don’t even remember how it all began. For a game that has been around longer than any of us have been, there has been a lot of confusion surrounding it. The majority of the country seems to follow the government’s lead and say that poker is a form of chance gambling, as opposed to the skill gambling that it is.

However, across the country more and more lawmakers are finally seeing the light, and the latest comes from South Carolina. There Municipal Judge J. Lawrence Duffy has declared that poker is a game of skill, not chance, and therefore is not illegal in the State of South Carolina.

The defendants were being charged with running illegal poker as their weekly poker game was busted up by police. However, before their attorney could even finish his closing argument, the judge broke in and said that Texas Hold’em was a game of skill and that there was no doubt that it was not illegal. However, he said he has to decide if the defendants broke any laws with their weekly poker game and that he would decide that later.

The judge now has to look to see if in hosting that poker game they broke the law, which he has to review South Carolina law to determine. The only question that remains is if they broke the law playing cards for money, as opposed to playing a chance based game.