Poker is mainly a game of skill, not chance, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, tossing out the conviction of a New York man who ran a poker club advertised by word of mouth and text messages.
The ruling is a legal victory for Lawrence Dicristina, a businessman who sold electric bicycles and operated a poker club in the back room of his Staten Island warehouse.
But legal experts say it also undercuts one of three federal laws used in the past to shut down online poker in the U.S. The Justice Department concluded earlier this year that another of the laws should not apply to online poker.
Dicristina was charged with violating the Illegal Gambling Business Act, a 1970s-era federal law intended to crack down on organized crime. Its definition of gambling lists several forms -- including slot machines, lotteries, and bookmaking -- that his lawyers argued were games of chance.
Director Douglas Tirola of the documentary, "All In … The Poker Movie," and 2003 World Series Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker talk about the evolution of the game and the increasing interest in it.
Poker, they argued, is primarily a game of skill and therefore isn't covered by the federal law. On Tuesday, Federal District Court Judge Jack Weinstein agreed.
"In poker," he wrote, "increased proficiency boosts a player's chance of winning and affects the outcome of individual hands as well as a series of hands. Expert poker players draw on an array of talents, including facility with numbers, knowledge of human psychology, and powers of observation and deception."
His 120-page opinion included charts and graphs showing how players more accomplished at such skills as bluffing consistently tend to beat inexperienced players.
What's more, Dicristina's lawyers argued, forms of gambling typically covered by federal law involve betting against casinos running the games, which manipulate the odds of winning. A poker player, by contrast, bets solely against other players, not the house.
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