More Than You Want
My post above gave the current statute, but the history of legal poker in California is interesting. By the late 1800s, California had the standard anti-gambling laws that were becoming widespread at the time. But in 1911, California's Attorney General (Harold Sigel Webb) issued an official opinion that draw poker was a game of skill and therefore not subject to the anti-gambling laws, because the cards were not openly viewable. Stud poker still was considered a game of chance and therefore illegal. Obviously, this approach was later abandoned in favor of a system of business regulation.
Mr. Webb's ruling probably was motivated by a little not-so-friendly competition with Nevada, which had cracked down on gambling in 1910, but was enlightened, nonetheless, with the exception of the meaningless open vs. closed card distinction it drew. Even today, the skill element of poker receives little to no respect in the laws of many states, illegalizing home games. For instance, in Illinois, the anti-gambling statute is similar to the California statute in 1910, but the Appellate Court has held that poker is not a "bona fide contest for the determination of skill."
|
09-17-2003, 06:16 PM
Linear Mode
