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More courts are supporting poker as a game of skill.

In Denver, the state's raid of a $20 Texas Hold 'Em tournament — and subsequent defeat for prosecutors during trial — could lead to a rewrite of Colorado's poker laws. According to the Denver Post, a group of five poker fans playing over a pot of $600 were jailed for illegal gambling. But instead of paying a $100 fine, the defendants have decided to take the case to court. In January, a Weld County jury acquitted one of the defendants who was the first to go to trial. The state has appealed.

In Pennsylvania, a judge tossed out charges against two people accused of illegal gambling after determining that "Texas Hold 'Em poker is a game where skill predominates over chance." The state has appealed the ruling.

In South Carolina, a judge ruled last month that poker is a game of skill, which could prevent future prosecutions of poker players. (The ruling, however, didn't help the defendants in that case because they violated other laws by running a gambling house.)

In the meantime, South Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, is introducing pro-poker legislation to the state’s legislature in the hopes of slowly beginning to overturn the antiquated 1802 gambling law. According to the He has established two dates for hearings this week for two bills. The first bill looks to legalize home poker games that exclude rake that accrues income for the house, as well as odds or a house bank. The second bill intends to legalize charity events that involve “casino night” types of activities, including raffles, to raise money for charity events. The bills are 535 and 560, respectively, and are awaiting Congressional action.

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.

The recent seizure of 141 poker-related domain names as "illegal gambling devices" by a district court in Kentucky is a perfect example of the sort of bizarre, far-reaching, and unpleasant consequences that result when online poker is criminalized and government feels compelled to regulate online what they cannot in person.

GPSTS founder and president Charles Nesson, however, is willing to place his bet on online poker. Read his op/ed on the topic after the jump.

Partnership places GPSTS at the cutting edge of strategic gaming as a rehabilitation tool under difficult conditions.

The GPSTS has always believed that poker specifically, and strategic gaming generally, are useful as teaching tools, and that under the right conditions, strategic games can help change lives. This summer, GPSTS founder and president Charles Nesson decided to put that idea to the test, and in the most unlikely of places: the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility in Kingston, Jamaica. By partnering with Students Expressing Truth, Jamaica's most successful and innovative charitable reform organization, the GPSTS is making it its mission to show that strategic gaming not only teaches, but heals.

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.

The public hearing at the State House on the Massachusetts Casino Expansion bill was packed — standing room only — but GPSTS founder and president Charlie Nesson stayed around until 9:30 PM to speak out in opposition to the bill, which will criminalize online poker playing if passed.

Nesson was also party to an interesting exchange with Deval Patrick, who was first to testify at the hearing.

You can read his testimony after the jump.

At 8:30 this morning, a contingent of supporters from the Harvard Law School chapter of the GPSTS joined members of the Massachusetts Poker Players' Alliance at a rally in front of the State House to protest Governor Deval Patrick's casino bill. Charlie Nesson, founder and president of the GPSTS, addressed the crowd about the dangers of criminalizing online poker, which a provision in section 15 of the bill would make punishable by fines of up to $25,000 — and two years' imprisonment.

Our friend, Sallie James writing on the Cato Institute blog this afternoon:

A further development in the cross-border supply of gambling and betting services broke today when the European Union announced they would launch a formal investigation into the selective (and retroactive) prosecution of European gaming interests by US authorities.

Governor Patrick's Casino bill for Massachusetts would criminalize playing internet poker for money with up to two years in prison. Who lobbied to put this provision in the bill?

criminalizing online poker — how crazy is that?

Internet gambling is a target of Patrick bill (Boston Globe)