Home / Poker News November 2011 / DoJ Moves Against Elie and Campos
DoJ Moves Against Elie and Campos
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2011-11-12 14:10
John Campos and Chad Elie were two of the people indicted on Black Friday for their role in the facilitation of money transfers to and from illegally operating
online poker sites Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The two of them had filed a motion claiming that poker was not a game of chance but one of skill and therefore the UIGEA provisions under which their indictments had been issued were without merit.
The DoJ, the entity behind the Black Friday moves, represented by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and U.S. Attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown, found it necessary to issue a response to the Elie and Campos motion though, suggesting that the court should dismiss the said motion.
The response was a 52-page document which presented numerous precedents all the way back to the 1800s. It then made its point stating that unlike sports betting, poker could not be considered a game of skill. The response brought up elaborate arguments to prove that sport betting wasn’t something based on pure luck and in the outcome of the wagers the handicapping put in by the bettor was reflected in a rather obvious way.
The most important point that the response made was that while the game of poker had undeniable elements of skill, the UIGEA’s provisions were to be applied to all games subject to chance, which meant poker too.
The fact that the outcome of poker hands is chance-dependent could not be the subject of a serious debate.
The DoJ also argued that the UIGEA carried no provisions concerning the exclusion of employees of various financial entities who knowingly aided illegal funds transfers, as claimed by the two defendants.
While the DoJ’s arguments appear to be sound, the statement that sports betting involves more skill than poker, on line poker discredits the document quite a bit, especially in the eyes of those who know what each of the two are about. In the response, a reference to The Gambler, Kenny Rogers’ classic poker song was also included, though erroneously attributed to a different singer.
