The Wall Street Journal today is reporting on efforts by academics to prove that poker is a game of skill — not chance. Motivated by a desire to overturn a Congressional ban last September on certain payment methods used for online gambling, Harvard University Law School professor Charles Nesson, professional poker player Howard Lederer and a number of “theorists, statisticians, law students and gambling lobbyists” conducted an all-day strategy session at the Harvard Faculty Club.
The Journal explains that, “Under U.S. common law, games that are predominantly chance are considered gambling, while those that are mainly skill are not.” The Congressional payments ban applies to gambling, so demonstration that poker predominantly is a game of skill theoretically would exempt it from the ban.
According to the Journal‘s article, the group is supporting the Poker Players Alliance, poker’s 400,000-member lobbying group, and seeking scientific proof that poker is a game of skill.
In a related effort, Freakanomics author and University of Chicago professor Steven Lewitt is engaged in statistically analyzing performance results of good and bad online poker players to establish the differences among them.
Lederer, Lewitt and others also put forth the argument that the fact that it is possible to intentionally lose in poker but not in pure-luck games such as baccarat or roulette establishes that poker logically is a game of skill.
For the complete Journal article and further reading, see the following:
- Harvard Ponders Just What It Takes To Excel at Poker by Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal (3 May 2007)
- Poker: Skill v. Chance (from Steven Lewitt’s blog)
- Know any lousy poker players? (Lewitt blog post on “pokernomics” study)
- Pokernomics Web site
Thanks to Bonnie for forwarding the article to me!
