US Poker Won’t Have Problems If Poker Is Classified As Game of Skill
Professors Steven Levitt and Thomas Miles, have brought out a report stating that the game of poker involves skill more than luck. Thomas Miles and Levitt who is a bestselling author have compared the extent of skill involved in poker to that involved in baseball and stated that players of both these games only win based on their skills and not based on luck.
The report is titled “ The Role Of Skill Versus Luck In Poker: Evidence From The World Series Of Poker” and it has been released a month later following the incident when the FBI were successful in indicting and shutting down three of the top US poker sites in the US for bank fraud and money laundering. But, this kind of an argument is just what these three companies need to recover from these indictments. If poker can be classed as a game involving skill, then it does not fall under the federal gambling rules.
Miles and Levitt are from the University of Chicago, and they argue that the courts have ruled against internet poker based on lack of any statistical evidence. Their report is based on the statistics from the 2010 World Series of Poker that is an annual event held in Las Vegas. In 2010 it involved 57 tournaments, 32,000 players and $185 million (£113 million) and the findings suggest that “high skilled” players accumulated 30% more than the money they invested while other players usually lost 15%, meaning that skilled players won an average of $350 per tournament while other players lost $400 per tournament. These economics professors also claimed that it would be wise and beneficial for the skilled poker player to invest into poker than into financial markets.
Although the indictments against the top three US poker sites include money laundering and bank fraud, proving that the game of poker involves skill might have a huge impact on the court’s ruling sentence on them. The economics professors also compared poker and baseball and claimed that they are equally both games based on skills and not based on luck.
The defendants are guilty as of now and they have been charged with serious accusations by the US government. But, if strong proof along the lines of poker being a game involving skill keeps persisting then who knows what the outcome might be. FBI assistant director stated that the defendants lied about the true nature of their business and bet that they could continue doing so, but they lost.
