August 14, 2009
Pennsylvania Tourney Organizer Found Guilty of Gambling“Game of Skill” defense doesn’t hold up
Lawrence Burns, 65, was found guilty of gambling yesterday, despite arguments the real-money tournaments he organized were not gambling because poker is a game of skill. After 2 1/2 days of testimony, the Westmoreland jury took less than 2 1/2 hours to return a verdict.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09225/990677-100.stm
Though a judge will determine Burns’ sentence, the prosecutor has said he does not believe the offense merits jail time. Burns plans to appeal the court’s ruling.
Regardless of these semi-bummer results, we should probably all take note: while it’s not too hard to convince non-poker people that poker is different from slot machines, lotteries, craps, etc. — and we might even convince them that Texas Hold’em tournaments are as skillful endeavors as fishing tournaments (where the pros generally win, but an amateur can always get lucky) — we’re always gonna have a really hard time persuading them to believe that poker isn’t gambling, game of skill or not. Sucks, but oh well … now we don’t need to hide all the players that like to say things like “gamble gamble!” when all-in on a draw.
(Thanks Marvin-in-Bedford for the heads-up.)
