Media Coverage

The question of whether poker is a game of skill or chance, and what that has to do with its legality, is being debated anew in courtrooms in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes about the controversy in "Legal status of poker: Is it a game of skill or chance?"

Gaining the upper hand
CharLaw translates poker tactics to the courtroom

Published in The Charlotte Weekly by Jonathan Reed

Students crowd around three tables outside the mock courtroom at Charlotte School of Law for a recent Saturday friendly poker game against Elon University. Onlookers can’t tell from the T-shirts and jeans worn by the nearly 30 students and teachers gathered at the school, but poker isn’t the only high-stakes game being taught within these walls.

The gathering was sparked by CharLaw professor John Kunich, an avid poker player (he’s made his way deep into the World Series of Poker twice in the last three years) who came to the affair dressed to the nines. Kunich’s “Stan Laurel” getup is a trademark of his poker circuit matches– he uses the “nutty professor”act as a feint.

In the past year, Kunich has found a way to blend his love of the law with his passion for the gentleman’s game. His inspiration came from one of Kunich’s former professors– Harvard Law School’s Charles Nesson, one of the founders of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.

From The Harvard Crimson:

HLS To Go "All In" Versus Yale

Published On Thursday, October 11, 2007 2:19 AM
By CHELSEA L. SHOVER
Contributing Writer

On the eve of Nov. 17, while much of the Harvard community is gearing up for "The Game" against Yale, a handful of law school students will be prepping to play a very different sort of game against the same rival.

From PocketFives.com.

On Tuesday, April 1st, CardRunners.com owner and PocketFives.com member Taylor Caby appeared at the New York University chapter of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, or GPSTS. It wasn't an April fool's joke; Caby spoke on turning his successful poker playing career into a business. A standing room only crowd filed in to listen to Caby speak for a little over an hour about growing CardRunners into one of the most successful poker training sites on the planet. It marked the latest in a string of educational events for the GPSTS.

From the Boston Herald.

Prof, pupils: Online play's OK

A card-playing Harvard Law professor and his poker-crazy students will stage a protest today outside the State House rallying against Gov. Deval Patrick's casino plan.

But while most opponents, ranging from church leaders to social activists, will be warning of the perils of expanded gambling, the Harvard group will be arguing there is not nearly enough.

From the Harvard Crimson.

Harvard Law School's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) met on Beacon Hill yesterday morning to protest a provision of a gaming bill—sponsored by Law School graduate Deval L. Patrick '78—that would criminalize online poker in Massachusetts.

From the Boston Herald.

By Charles Nesson

Gov. Deval Patrick's casino bill, being given a hearing today on Beacon Hill, would make it illegal for state residents to play poker online - with penalties ranging from hefty fines to jail time of up to two years.

From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

From PokerPages.com.

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS), the brainchild of students at Harvard led by law school professor Charles Nesson, is catching on fast around the world, putting forward poker as an educational tool that especially applies to law and business, and also supporting an open education in an open internet, and raising awareness for the legality of poker.

From Writopia Lab:

First Video Games, Now Poker for Good

Posted by Rebecca Wallace-Segall
Friday, December 14, 2007

NY Times writer Gary Rivlin reported this week on a professor and a group of Harvard Law students who formed an organization this fall — the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society — dedicated to demonstrating that poker has educational benefits.

From the article: