Poker is Gambling, Not Skill Judge Rules

A Wisconsin judge has ruled that poker is a prohibited form of gambling, not a game of skill as the Poker Players Alliance has long contended.

Madison Circuit Court Judge Richard G. Niess made his decision this week in the case of Steve Verrett et al vs. J B Van Hollen, the later being Wisconsin’s Attorney General at the time the case was filed in August of 2014.

From FlushDraw.net:

Niess, according to a PokerNews update from the courtroom, cited existing law from a 1964 case (State v. Morrissy (25 Wis. 2d 638)), which involved the owner of an East Troy, WI bar/restaurant hosting bi-weekly poker games in his establishment, and withdrawing money from the game for the usual incidentals such as food and the use of the room.  (The small southern-Wisconsin community is near the resort area of Lake Geneva, roughly midway between Madison and Milwaukee.)  That case eventually went before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on related issues of what constituted “commercial gambling,” but the framework of the rulings left intact existing Wisconsin statutes that generally included poker as a form of illegal gambling activities.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com