More Poker Prohibition

Author: Simon Dexter

British and European poker players should be thankful they live on this side of the Atlantic.

Hardly a day goes by when there are no stories from the US or Canada of more poker games being raided by the police in echoes of the alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s.

It seems that over in that part of the world they can’t decide whether playing poker is a basic human right or just downright evil.

A case in Canada recently saw most of the players caught in an ‘illegal’ game pleading guilty to the charges against them but the lawyer involved in the case wished the court had been allowed to have a full hearing of the whole matter.

The lawyer, Scott Burden, was quite prepared to let the court decide the issue but there were other practicalities to consider.

“I would say there was some room for argument as to whether what was being done was legal or not,” Burden told The Newfoundland Western Star.

“For reasons unrelated to guilt or innocence, the decision to enter a guilty plea and move on was made.”

Burden and his team said they spent many months researching and discussing the case.

“We had come to the conclusion that, in a perfect world, it would have been nice just to get a decision from a court,” he said.

“It didn’t happen for other reasons, but this wasn’t as open-and-shut a case as I think many people would have thought in terms of whether the activity itself was legal or illegal.

“There was an argument there to be made. That doesn’t mean I am encouraging it or discouraging it or anything else. I am just saying that in some ways it would have been nice to have it litigated and for the court to make a decision.”

So, should we be concerned that there are some people around the world who are not allowed to play poker? Is it really a fundamental human right?

Obviously, there are more important issues - world hunger, oppressive regimes and saving the planet, but what these governments are doing is denying people freedom of choice and that has always got to be an important issue.

As Europeans do we really care about are American cousins? Maybe not, but remember that American culture tends to come to Britain a few years later and while we put up with US slang, rap music and hoodies do we really want no
poker

?

Tags: How To Play Poker, play poker, poker game, Poker News

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 5:49 pm and is filed under General Poker, News & Promotions Blog.