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Copyright © 2006 Poker News
HEADLINE: UK Poker News Weekend
Body:
Gambling legislation has been in the news a lot this
week. Next year a new gambling act, will make it legal for pubs
in England and Wales to host poker
games. Landlords currently have to ask a local magistrate
for special permission to allow "games of chance" such
and bingo, bridge and poker
to be played on their premises.
It's unlikely these events will be able to compete with casinos
and poker
rooms however, as the new rules state that the games must
be for low stakes. The suggested cap for these pub games is £10
and landlords will not be allowed to profit from the game. Casino
games such as roulette and blackjack will remain banned.
Some are worried at the prospect of mixing alcohol with gambling
but the Department of Culture, Media and Sport says: "To
ban poker from pubs
would risk encouraging unlawful games which would be difficult
to control." Emm, How exactly?
How has it been difficult in the past to control poker
in pubs? It's either illegal or it isn't! That seems very black
and white to me but this new piece of flaky legislation will only
make it even more difficult to control. The reason illegal games
have existed in the past is because the legality of certain games
has always been very much a grey area. This law isn't going to
change that. Will the poker police really be prosecuting landlords
for running events above the £10 cap, or for making a small
profit from a poker tournament? Also since slot machines and video
poker have no limit on how much you can dump into them and landlords
certainly make a profit from touch-betting, why then is poker
being viewed differently? Do the government think poker is more
hardcore? Some slots have a very high intake with very low payout
percentages, and what's worse is the punter never wins in the
long run. That is the very definition of hardcore gambling, and
without a doubt the most addictive, yet culture secretary, Theresa
Jowell, actually wants to remove limits on slot machines. What's
next? Will the health minister put limits on how much cannabis
you can smoke but let you snort as much cocaine as you want? Cool!
It could be worse; you could live in France where if you play
poker you are now officially labelled a "delinquent"
by the government. France is considering adoption of 2 amendments
containing anti-gambling legislation to France's "delinquency
prevention" measures, which were originally introduced by
the Minister of the Interior, Nicholas Sarkozy, following France's
2005 riots.
Amendment 254 is similar to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act (UIGEA) in the USA. It targets banks and financial institutions
and aims to prevent them from funding gambling sites, but protects
state-run gambling, betting and lotteries. The French amendment
however goes much farther by aiming to prevent banks from transferring
funds to and from known gambling individuals. The purpose of the
second amendment, Amendment 255, is to cut down the effectiveness
of promoting gambling sites on the Internet. French legislators
vote on the amendments later this week.
Will poker ever
be recognised as a sport or game of skill by the government? In
my opinion, it isn't likely, at least not any time soon, but Randy
Peterson; a former detective with the Canadian Mountain Police
claims to have come up with the answer. Duplicate poker is a game
similar to Texas
Holdem, which he says takes the luck element out of the game
completely and is based purely on skill. At first I was appalled
by the idea. How on earth am I going to crack someone's aces with
nine-four off-suit in this game? Then I took the tutorial and
realised I still can, which means Mr Peterson seems to have overlooked
something. If I can play badly and still win how has the luck
element been taken out of the game? Hmmm… maybe I like this
game after all.
You can download and play Duplicate Texas
Holdem at www.e-pokerusa.com. The game is still essentially
played the same as regular Texas
Holdem. The difference is the players you play against have
the exact same hole cards on a mirror table, and will see the
same board cards At the start of each hand your stack is reset
to an equal amount of chips. Your goal is to complete the hand
with more chips than your opponents by playing the hand better
than them. Herein lies the problem. Lets say I know I shouldn't
call a re-raise with a small pair if I don't have the right pot
odds, but my opponent does call, flops a set and wins a nice pot.
He scores higher than I do in this hand. I don't see how the luck
element has been taken out of this game but I will reserve my
final judgement for when I'm actually bored enough to download
the software and try it out which isn't likely to be any time
soon. I mean where's the fun in Texas
Holdem if I can't frighten the life out of my opponents? "Oh
look, ten-three on the button and it's suited. Now how much should
I re-raise that fish here..."
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