Home / Poker News August 2013 / Lawrence DiCristina Ruling Overturned
Lawrence DiCristina Ruling Overturned
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2013-08-07 08:37
The cause of poker being recognized as a legitimate game of skill suffered something of a blow the other day, when the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the famous Lawrence DiCristina ruling, on which supporters of legal
online poker have long based their “skill game” argument. According to the ruling, the gambling activity can only be prohibited by state law, so if anything, this new development only added to the murkiness of the legal framework currently surrounding the game of poker in the US.
The overturning of District Court Judge Jack Weinstein’s decision in the DiCristina case may be something of a tragedy for DiCristina himself, who operated a brick-and-mortar poker game in a Brooklyn warehouse, and who will now find himself sent back for sentencing unless a last-resort appeal gets him off the hook, but it did not actually do away with the “poker is a game of skill” argument.
What it did achieve though is that it has yet again allowed the DoJ to prosecute live poker games under the provisions of the IGBA. The “poker as a game of skill” approach was found entirely irrelevant in the new ruling. What all this means is that Judge Weinstein’s argument will be available as a precedent in future legal cases involving the nature and status of the game.
The overturning of the DiCristina ruling was based on three IGBA requirements, all of which were found to have been met by the case: DiCristina’s business had violated state law, 5 or more people were involved in it and it ran for more than 30 days or it generated more than $2k in revenue.
According to PPA director John Pappas, the decision only served to further highlight the need for more legal clarity in regards to poker, especially on a federal level.
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