Got this from another fourm,,,,
Today Federal District Court Judge Jack Weinstein handed down a ruling that poker was predominately a game of skill and not chance and therefore is not covered by federal gambling laws. The ruling is a legal victory for Lawrence Dicristina, a businessman who sold electric bicycles and operated a poker club in the back room of his Staten Island warehouse. Dicristina was charged with violating the Illegal Gambling Business Act, federal law intended to crack down on organized crime.
Judge Jack Weinstein wrote,
"In poker," he wrote, "increased proficiency boosts a player's chance of winning and affects the outcome of individual hands as well as a series of hands. Expert poker players draw on an array of talents, including facility with numbers, knowledge of human psychology, and powers of observation and deception."
Weinstein noted that poker has a long history in the United States, "embraced by many of our political leaders and other public figures," including former Supreme Court Justices William O. Douglas, "a regular at President Franklin Roosevelt's poker parties," and Fred Vinson, who played the game with President Harry S. Truman
