Harvard professors back online poker

[mollila]

By Scott Van Voorhis
October 22, 2007

A pair of professors from esteemed academic institution, Harvard University, have openly announced that they support the regulation of online poker in the United States.

The university even added a gaming law subject to their curriculum this semester.

Professor Charles Nesson has become an outspoken advocate on behalf of online poker, blasting last year’s UIGEA, sneakily introduced by the US government on the back of a port security bill without even being discussed by lawmakers.

Nesson has teamed up with some of his law students to form the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, which held a pair of inaugural sessions last week.

Meanwhile, Professor Alan Dershowitz is helping defend an online entrepreneur facing charges related to an offshore sports betting site with which he was involved. The USA somehow justifies banning sports betting online, but allows horse race betting online and sports betting in casinos.

Important legal principles are at stake, the two men say - though they both also admit to being avid poker fans.

And they’re not alone in their interest. Harvard Law this year offered its first-ever course in gaming law.

“The idea of Internet freedom is a core notion of modern political freedom,” Nesson said.

Nesson first became interested in the game in 1981. On sabbatical, he was programming his new IBM computer, which came with a version of poker - five-card draw, jacks or better. As he tinkered with his computer, he got a close look at the bluffing algorithm and became entranced with the “elegance” of the game.

When online poker emerged years later, the Harvard professor became a fan of that too, enjoying both the challenge and the convenience. And he found himself “affronted” when some forms of online gaming were restricted last year in the United States after what he derides as a “midnight” vote in Congress.

Nesson contends that poker is a game of skill, not chance. Given that, poker tournaments, including online play, should be legalized, he said.

Dershowitz is also a devoted poker fan. He plays in the summer with Larry David of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame and he jokes that he knows it’s a game of skill since he is frequently bested by better players.

Like Nesson, Dershowitz contends that, under the same “game of skill” theory, online sports betting should be legalized. It is a belief he is now putting into practice as he tries to keep out of prison an executive charged with running an online sports betting business.

“It’s certainly not a game of chance,” Dershowitz said. “It is ridiculous to call either poker or sports betting a game of chance.”

The professors contend the ban passed by Congress last year is on shaky legal ground. In fact, the tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua, home to a number of off-shore Internet gaming companies, has already successfully challenged the online gaming ban at the World Trade Organization.

Nesson said his interest in poker extends beyond the game itself and the controversies surrounding Internet gaming.

“It’s really the poker way of thinking that is the most deeply intriguing thing to me,” Nesson said.

“The essence of poker is this business of seeing from the other person’s point of view. You have to figure out just where to stop.”

He believes the game of poker can be a great teaching tool by helping instill important analytical skills.

“It’s so much the part of what legal thinking is about,” he said. In fact, Nesson offers some unconventional advice to his students.

“If they want to do something useful in their outside time, they should play poker,” he said.

Full article at Boston Herald.

[[ZiP]Tyf]

Interesting read m8, especially him saying it's about skills and not chance. As always politicians have no clue what they're on about, unfortunately they do have the power to decide on these matters of which they know nothing...
At first I thought poker was a game of chance as well, lol! (Good thing I'm not a politician huh ) But after playing it for months now, you get to know the game, get better at it and heck win more often!? Wouldn't be possible if it were just left to chance, would it?



P.S. '...sneakily introduced by the US government on the back of a port security bill without even being discussed by lawmakers.' . Don't they try that quite often in the US? There's something in the back of my mind about another try, which failed .

[philjj]

Don't you just love the stories that begin Have you heard the one about 2 old pro's? Another very interesting article thanks

[jimbo51]

i hope that they change the law on online poker