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DATE: May 24 2012
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Poker.co.uk - Poker News Archive

Friday 5th June 2009

Sweden Rules Texas Hold’Em As Game Of Skill

An appeals court in Sweden has sharply reduced the sentences of four men convicted of arranging a Texas hold’em poker tournament, a ruling that many experts believe could open the door to more competition for the nation’s State-owned Svenska Spel gambling monopoly. The case stems from a poker tournament held in March of 2007 in the town of Grebbestad involving 700 players. In April of last year, the Uddevala District Court sentenced two men to six months and eight months in jail, respectively, while two others received fines equivalent to 80 days pay. However, the Court Of Appeal For Western Sweden reduced the charges and sentences for all four last month. The two punished with jail received suspended sentences while the remaining pair had their fines reduced to 60 days pay while all charges were changed from ‘serious illegal gambling’ to ‘illegal gambling’. In order to be convicted of ‘serious illegal gambling’ in Sweden, the game must be dependant on a substantial degree on chance rather than on a player’s skill. The Court Of Appeal concluded in its ruling that a player could have been dealt up to 40 hands during the Texas hold’em tournament in question, thus reducing the importance of chance to the game’s outcome. The Court ruled that the tournament was so large that players’ ability to analyse the game was more important than what sort of cards they may have been dealt. The Grebbestad tournament also included a large number of side games for those who had been eliminated from the main tournament. These smaller and shorter games involved a significantly lower number of dealt hands, which the Court ruled increased the importance of chance in determining the outcome. It stated that this is why the charges of ‘illegal gambling’ still applied.

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Source: OnlineCasinoNews

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