Poker is a Game of Skill, Rules South Carolina Judge

Though the defendants’ attorney hadn’t even finished his closing argument, the judge spoke up and gave his opinion known that Texas hold’em is a game of skill and there was no doubt in his mind about it.  That belief is not something that is new to all poker players out there but it isn’t a widely held belief amongst those outside poker circles and not especially a claim made very often by a judge in a court of law.  Municipal Judge J. Lawrence Duffy is one of those rare exceptions who did exactly that on Friday in Charleston, South Carolina during one of the biggest poker related trials of the new year.

“It really shocked us. I don’t personally know how he can’t rule in our favor,” said Bob Chimento, one of the five defendants in the case.  “To me, the message was — how can any reasonable person not think this is a game of skill?” said Jeff Philips, the defendants’ attorney.

The five men – Chimento, Scott Richards, Michael Williamson, Jeremy Brestel and John Taylor Willis – were arrested in April 2006 when their weekly poker game was raided by local police.  Though Judge Duffy said that it was clear to him that poker was a game of skill, he needed to determine if the defendants’ conduct broke the law.  It is expected that that decision will be announced on Thursday.

“It’s not really a matter of the judge trying to determine the facts of the case,” said Philips. “I believe he pretty much accepts the facts as we have presented them. He just needs to determine whether or not the facts are in violation of the law.”