January 16, 2007

Now, I am not advocating for the gambling trade.

I believe it to be an unwholesome thing to engage in, even if a bunch of lying white people came in and took away all your land.

However, this story from Great Britain caught my eye: Is poker game of skill or chance?

By Mike Collett-White
Tue Jan 16, 9:03 AM ET

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters Life!) - A court in East London is expected to decide this week whether poker is a game of skill, chance or a combination of both.

A jury has been asked to weigh up the role played by Lady Luck in the world's most popular card game, after police accused a club owner of illegally hosting a poker session and levying winnings and stakes without a license.

Britain's Gambling Act states that a license is needed for hosting a game of chance but not those of skill, like chess. [...]

Longtime readers will know I have a certain affection for one former citizen of Hannibal, Missouri, and as luck (or skill) would have it, he once addressed this very issue in the peculiar case of Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. John Wheeler et al. , or as it is more commonly known, Science vs. Luck.

I known not if the bewigged barristers of Londinium would care to use such precedent, coming as it does from the rude American frontier, but I can tell them right now if they care to employ the same method of experimentation, it will be equally eye-opening (and pocket-emptying) for them.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 16, 2007 04:12 PM
Comments

I learned young that that the answer depends on who you were playing. For most people, poker is just a quick method to get rid of money. For others, it is a profitable business.

Posted by: Larry Anderson at January 17, 2007 08:49 AM