England vs. The Danes

  The first serious disagreement between Scandinavia and England goes all the way back to June 8th of the year 793. On this sunny summer morning the monks of the Island Lindisfarne looked out to not only see a startlingly beautiful sunrise but also a fleet of dragon prowed boats headed for their shore. The next few hours were a higgly piggly mess of human rights violations against men of the cloth and the occasional crime against nature with some of the local livestock.  For the next century or two the relationship between the Vikings (this word is actually a verb, not a noun) and the English was rocky to say the least. They eventually found common ground on topics like how wonderful the potato is and the need to stop the third Reich. Well, the old rivalry seems to be starting up again, and this time it is about whether or not poker is a game of skill or chance.  A few weeks ago a British court came to the conclusion that poker is not that different from the lottery, or roulette. The guys in powdered wigs declared it a game of chance. And yesterday, the Danish courts ruled that poker was a game of skill. This put it in the same category as football, hockey, or any other sport where an effort has to be made to win. What this means to the Danish player is that in Denmark, poker is legal and can be played with impunity.  This difference in rulings means that Europe is becoming split on the issue, and laws will change as you travel from country to country. Either the EU is going to have to take up this issue and normalize the law for the bulk of Europe, or we are going to have to send Gus Hansen over to London to kick the bejeezus out of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury. This is a joke of course, but the truth is that not only Europe, but all other parts of the globe would only benefit if the lawmakers consider to regulate poker - which is not solely a game of chance or just a game of luck: when a player sits down at the table, he needs both his good poker skills and a certain amount of luck to win.