The Swedish Supreme Court has really put the cat amongst the pigeons by declaring they believe poker cash games are all luck, yet poker in a tournament format does require some skill, though luck does play a major part.
The shock announcement came after the conclusion of a court case that dated back to 2007. Then four men were arrested for hosting an illegal poker tournament called the European Poker Challenge. A total of 670 players paid the €250 entry fee which meant the winner was set to walk away with €50,000 but shortly after the tournament started, it was raided by police.
In Sweden it is illegal to gamble unless in a licensed establishment such as a casino. For a game to be not counted as gambling its outcome has to be massively influenced by a player’s skill rather than luck. The Swedish court system argued that poker was all luck but the four men who were arrested and charged pleaded that poker was a game of skill, and the arrested men seemed to have won their case as two were completed acquitted of all charges and the other two had their sentences drastically reduced.
Swedish Justice Göran Lamberth said of the Main Event and the other side events that were running at the time of the raid as, “We have found that the main tournament and its side tournaments were not random chance games but that skill does come into it.” but said that cash games were in breach of Swedish strict, but some may say slightly archaic, gambling laws. This is due to the fact that a cash game player could sit down, play a single hand, win and walk away and because there is a lot of skill involved over the course of one hand they were “a game of pure random chance.”
However, the court did not declare that tournament poker was a game of pure-skill otherwise it could have had lasting effects in the Scandinavian country as it could have meant that any profit gained from poker tournaments could have been taxed and venues that offered gambling legally would also have been able to spread poker tournaments.
