In the eyes of the law, the subtle difference between a game of skill and a game of chance is the difference between allowed and disallowed gaming. Poker might not be a sport, but it can be claimed as a game of skill. A federal law adopted last year, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, prohibits banks and credit card companies from processing online gambling transactions. The statute makes no mention for games of skill.
There are two distinctions between game of skill and game of luck. First, who is the player betting against. If the player is betting against the house, it’s a game of chance, if the player is playing against other players than it’s a game of skill. Furthermore, if one can prove the game involves skill (math, statistics, strategy) in addition to pure chance and luck, than the game is not prohibited by the act and is allowed. A number of groups are currently lobbying to allow poker to be legally played on the internet by trying to classify it as a game of skill.
Others have modified the game to make it more skill based game. For example, DuplicatePoker.com a gaming site is offering duplicate poker, a flavor of the game that eliminate the “luck of the draw” element from poker. As a result, the elements of skill predominate in determining winners in Duplicate Poker games. Because Duplicate Poker is a game of skill it is legal in most U.S. jurisdictions and currently accepts US based players. Current states where skill-gaming is prohibited include: Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Connecticut, Florida, Montana, South Carolina and Illinois.
Unfortunately for sports fanatics, when one places a bet on a sporting event, one is betting against the house, thus placing it in the category of games of chance. Thus, as of the writing of this article, if you’d like to bet on basketball, soccer, football or hockey games, you are not permitted to do so over the internet in the United States.
Tags: Arizona · Arkansas · Connecticut · Delaware · Duplicate Poker · Florida · Games of Skill · Illinois · Iowa · Louisiana · Montana · South Carolina · Tennessee · Vermont2 Comments
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[...] our earlier post about skill gaming we discussed what the difference between games of skill and chance are. On June 7, 2007 Robert [...]
i still don’t get it, however. isn’t everything that is NOT a game of chance a game of skill? therefore, how can a game of skill be illegal ANYWHERE? If we have a trivia contest, does that mean if you live in Illinois you can’t participate in it? That seems ridiculous, and there are trivial contests in bars in chicago with cash prizes all the time.
Help. No clarity.