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In a New York District Court this week, Australian online poker payment processor Daniel Tzvetkoff has plead not guilty to processing millions of dollars in transactions for the Internet gambling sector.
He argued that poker is not gambling, however. Instead, he says that poker is a game of skill. It's about wit, not luck.
Tzvetkoff is charged with bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering, gambling conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy and faces up to 75 years in prison.
His case is tied in with a complicated maze of investigations and circumstances that Gambling911.com sources say involve the arrest of another online poker payment processor, Douglas Rennick, and multi-agency probes of major Internet card rooms and offshore sportsbook operations. One of those reportedly caught up in the ongoing investigations committed suicide last month.
Tzvetkoff and his attorney seem to be digging into the playbook of the Poker Players Alliance, a grass roots trade organization that insists poker is a game of skill and therefore not gambling.
"There is a wealth of scientific research that shows poker is a game of skill rather than chance," claims PPA Director John Pappas.
Tzvetkoff, who lies waiting in a rat infested Brooklyn jail, is hardly someone the online poker industry would want representing its cause. Operators have accused Tzvetkoff of absconding with millions of their funds.
The Assistant US Attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown isn't buying any of the arguments that poker is a game of skill.
"The gambling industry is using the line that poker is not gambling, that it's a game of skill and is therefore not gambling," Mr Devlin-Brown said.
Should Tzvetkoff elect to see things through, his trial is not expected to take place until 2012 the earliest.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
