Online Poker Legalization

These three statutes together create a challenge in terms of money movement between the player and the website.
             Though it can be argued that these statutes pertain to online poker specifically, you will notice that the game of poker is not specifically mentioned in any of them. That being said, the three previously mentioned statutes only potentially implicate online poker and the legal status of the game falls into a grey zone (Romoser 1). When considering this grey zone, a question that can be asked is "Should online poker be considered gambling?" Depending on how that is answered can determine whether it would be considered legal under most standards set by federal and state governments (Cabot & Hannum 1). To be considered gambling, all three of the following elements must be present: 1) the award of a prize, 2) determined on the basis of chance, and 3) where consideration was paid. If the element of the outcome is predominated by skill and not chance, then the act would not constitute gambling under this definition (Cabot & Csoka 1). .
             With these three elements in mind, the question of whether poker is a game of skill or a game of chance has been examined in numerous studies. In 2008, a study by Dedonno & Detterman compared players who received instruction based on expert opinions against players that were taught no strategies. The instructed players performed better than the ones who received no instruction. In addition, mathematical analysis performed by computer simulations of a random player versus a skilled player in full table simulation games resulted in the skilled player winning 97 percent of the hands which supports the theory that highly skilled players consistently beat unskilled players (Cabot & Hannum 1).
             While there is an element of chance, those elements being factors such as the cards a player is dealt, the ability to get lucky and draw cards that give a player a very good chance of winning a hand, or the chance of getting unlucky and losing a hand that wouldn't be lost in most scenarios, the role that skill plays far outweighs these factors of chance.