Future of the Skill Game Protection Act Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

The Skill Game Protection Act

In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of the SAFE Ports bill put severe restrictions on Internet gambling in the U.S. This caused a wave of unrest around the online gambling industry, including online casinos and poker sites, as online gamblers everywhere expressed concern about this infringement upon their rights. One response was the Skill Game Protection Act.

The Skill Game Protection Act

House Florida Democrat Robert Wexler introduced the Skill Game Protection Act, or H.R. 2610, in June of 2007. In general, U.S. gambling legislation seeks to outlaw games of chance. Games of skill, like chess or checkers, are not a danger because they do not have that element of randomness.

One would expect the more skilled player to win at these games every time. The Skill Game Protection Act would aim to protect games such as internet poker and online backgammon, since although these games contain a random element, the more skilled player should still win the majority of the time. Pure games of chance, such as online slots, would not be protected, however.

Response to the Skill Game Protection Act

The Skill Game Protection Act suffers from the fact that it is very difficult to convince those who do not play poker that it is any more a game of skill than card games such as blackjack or baccarat. Skeptics only see individual hands, whose outcome are in large part determined by luck, and have difficulty seeing the entire picture.

Future of the Skill Game Protection Act

The act is still waiting for debate in Congress. The change in the makeup of the U.S. Congress since the SAFE Ports Act was passed would seem to be favorable to the Skill Game Protection Act, as a Democratic Congress would seem to be more apt to lean to the side of civil liberties than moral anti-gambling values.