Ifrah Law's Jeff Ifrah Advises No Poker Market Is Possible Without PokerStars

WASHINGTON, DC - Jun 25, 2014) - Last week the Wall Street Journal reported on plans by Amaya Gaming Group Inc., a Montreal-based producer of gaming machines and systems, to buy PokerStars, the largest online poker operator in the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amaya Gaming will be paying $4.9 billion to take over privately held Oldford Group Ltd., parent company of Rational Group Ltd. that owns the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Online gambling proponents hope that having PokerStars back in the game will mean an upswing for the industry in the U.S., which has been unexpectedly slow despite the legalization in the states of Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey. According to analysts, New Jersey has only generated between $130 million and $150 million last year, considerably less than what experts had expected. Part of the problem could be the fact that some leading banks in the United States are hesitant to let their customers use credit cards for online games, fearing regulatory risks. Another issue, in the opinion of iGaming experts, is the absence of PokerStars on the market. "You can't create a market without PokerStars, period," Jeff Ifrah, a litigator, who regularly represents PokerStars, told the Wall Street Journal.

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Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

2 May 19, 2014 4:35 PM EDT

By James McManus Bloomberg View

On May 15, Judge Cawthon dismissed the gambling charges against Kasper and Leuzinger. Ruling that the defense had provided “uncontroverted evidence” that poker is a “bona fide contest of skill,” he found that Idaho’s anti-gambling statue was void for vagueness as applied and that the state’s “prosecution under 18-3802 is unconstitutional as applied to these two individuals.” In essence the judge ruled that a statute that defines gambling to include poker but excludes games of skill is at odds with itself and therefore unconstitutional.

The case nudges Idaho, and perhaps other states, closer to understanding that the skill-to-luck ratio of America’s national card game makes it much more like playing baseball or the markets than like hoping a craps or keno or lottery number comes up. The federal treatment of poker has also been erratic -- sometimes even nonsensical –- and the new statistical research should open some eyes in Congress and at the Justice Department. Whether it happens on land or online, playing poker should no longer be considered a criminal act. 

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