Poker is no crime.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Gambling ruling

WHICH IS more important in determining winners and losers in poker: luck or skill? While a given player's response to that question may depend on whether he's up or down, a federal judge recently gave a more definitive answer.

In a detailed, 120-page decision issued on August 21, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein threw out the conviction of a Staten Island poker room operator accused of violating the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA). Weinstein ruled that poker does not qualify as gambling under that statute because it is "predominately a game of skill." The Poker Players Alliance, a pro-legalization group that assisted the defense, said it was the first time a federal court had addressed the game's status.

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Federal prosecutors argued that state law should determine what counts as a "gambling business" under IGBA, while the defendant, Lawrence Dicristina, said Congress had in mind a distinct federal definition. Weinstein concluded that the rule of lenity, which says ambiguities in the definition of a crime should be resolved in the defendant's favor, required him to accept Dicristina's interpretation.

IGBA does not mention poker, and Weinstein noted that all its examples of gambling...