After appeal, a second South Carolina court has declared that poker is not illegal gambling. The ruling is seen as another step forward in the battle to get poker legalized in all 50 states, as well as in legalizing and regulating online poker.

The ruling was handed down by Judge R. Markley Dennis, who said in his ruling: “the men were caught playing a game of skill, not chance, and that their activity could therefore not be considered illegal gambling.”

Judge Markley cited two critical points in his decision: First was the overwhelming evidence that skill far outweighs luck in poker: His second point was that the laws governing illegal gambling were broad and vague. The latter is a point of contention in many court cases involving poker; advocates cite the vague laws as a way for law enforcement to cherry-pick who gets prosecuted, and the definition of “illegal gambling” is left up to the individual.

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Tags: poker legal, south Carolina poker

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 7:54 am and is filed under Legal Poker News, US Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “South Carolina judge: Poker a game of skill and legal”

1. Matches Malone says:

   October 8, 2009 at 12:41 pm

   What does that make it now? 5 states for, 3 against? I’ve lost count.
2. Ian says:

   October 10, 2009 at 6:31 pm

   Lets hope this is a sign of things to come!