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Poker just got a shot in the arm in the USA.
Elena Kagan, the woman nominated this week by U.S. President Barack Obama to America's highest court, the Supreme Court, has been described in press reports as, among other things, "a poker player."
Kagan, an attorney who has never been a judge at any level, is the current U.S. Solicitor General and the former dean of the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
If confirmed, she will be one of three women justices on the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court, and only the fourth female justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Having a poker player on the USA's highest court could bode well for online poker players in America.
Although it is not illegal for Americans to play online poker, it is illegal for them to use credit cards issued by American banks to fund online gambling.
Since credit cards are the easiest way to fund Internet gambling, the credit card ban has made it more difficult for Americans to participate.
If the law banning credit card use for funding online gambling is ever challenged in court in the USA, and the case reaches the Supreme Court, it would certainly be beneficial to have an avid poker fan on the court.
Kagan is the second Supreme Court justice nominated by Obama, himself a noted poker player.
(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)
