Inside Asian Gaming

Poker Ruled Game of Skill in Denmark In a decision that could have wide-ranging implications in Europe, a municipal court in Denmark has ruled that poker tournaments are games of skill. The decision, which was likely to be appealed, was based on the judge’s assessment that competence in the game—Texas Hold ’Em in this instance—is vital to success. “This case is unique in that we believe it is the first time anywhere in the world that the rules of poker have been closely scrutinized,” said attorney Anders M. Hansen, managing partner of the Danish firm of Danders & More, which represented the defendant, Frederik Hostrup, chairman of the Danish Poker Association. The ruling resulted in Hostrup’s acquittal on charges lodged in 2006 accusing him of violating Danish gambling laws by organizing poker tournaments that collected entry fees from players. The case was brought by police on behalf of Horesta, a national restaurant, tourist and hotel trade organization. “The court has recognized that a poker tournament played over many hours requires a range of strategic, analytical and math- ematical skills, and without these skills a player is unlikely to win,” Hansen said. Poker is popular in Denmark, with an estimated 300,000 people playing the game every week. The brains-versus-luck debate took another interesting twist re- cently at a Hyatt hotel in Vancouver, Canada, when the annual meet- ing of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence pitted two poker pros against a poker-playing computer program named Polaris—and the humans won. In the“First Man-Machine Poker Championship,”as the exhibition was dubbed, Phil Laak and Ali Eslami defeated the computer in four sessions played over two days. Each session consisted of 500 hands of duplicate limit-Hold ’Em. Polaris finished ahead in the first two ses- sions (but only by US$70 in the first session, which was determined a “statistical tie”). Eslami and Laak (whose girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, was among the spectators) took the last two bouts by a cumulative US$570 and walked away with US$12,500 in prize money. Polaris is the creation of the University of Alberta’s Computer Poker Research Group, whose goal is not a World Series of Poker ring but the development of true artificial intelligence, for which game- playing is particularly fruitful as a field of research, so the experts say. The Group spent nearly two decades studying checkers before unveiling an ostensibly unbeatable program that has finally “solved” the game by always choosing the best possible move. Jonathan Schaeffer, chairman of the university’s Department of Computing Science, was philosophical about Polaris’ loss to a couple of mortals. “We’re going to keep working on this,” he told PokerNews.com . “Poker is fun.” UK’s Large and Small Casinos to Proceed Britain’s super casinomay be dead,but development of 16 smaller casinos operating under a more liberalized regulatory regime will go 44 International Briefs forward as planned, according to Culture Secretary James Purnell. Purnell said the “large” and “small” casinos, as they’re titled in the 2005 Gambling Act, will be resubmitted to Parliament for approval this autumn. “I don’t think there’s any question… of anything changing in re- lation to them,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the press.“I think the prime minister is happy with policy in relation to those 16.’’ Whether all 16 will go ahead is another matter because political alignments within some of the local councils have changed since the locations were awarded back in January. Support for some of the projects reportedly has diminished. The 16 casinos were thrown onto the rails back in March in a close vote in the House of Lords — victims of an unremitting controversy surrounding the super casino, which was fought over by opposing politicians, competing cities in need of regeneration and pro- and anti-gambling forces. The 5,000-square-meter “super casino,” the “re- gional”casino as it is termed under the Act,was to have 1,250 unlimit- ed-prize slot machines and was to be located in Manchester. Both the concept and the location were so unpopular that Brown wasted no time after taking office in July to shelve the proposal indefinitely. The 16 large and small casinos have generated their own share of controversy because of the competitive threat they pose to the ex- isting industry. The Gambling Act permits them more slot machines and more varieties of games than Britain’s 130 or so existing casinos, which must operate under 40-year-old regulations that cap them at 20 limited-prize slots each. The British Casino Association petitioned the country’s High Court of Justice for a review of the Act in the hope that a favorable ruling would compel Parliament to reconsider the old restrictions.The court, however, rejected the BCA’s appeal in May. As it stands, if local authorities confirm their host status then Great Yarmouth, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Middlesborough, Milton Keynes, Newham, Solihull and Southampton will be home to one ca- sino each that is permitted up to 4,000 square meters of total space and up to 150 £4,000 slot machines, 30 table games and the option to offer sports betting and bingo. The authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, East Lindsey, Luton, Scarborough, Torbay,Wolverhampton, Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland and Swansea in Wales will host one casino each of up to 1,750 square meters, 80 £4,000 slots and 40 tables. Of the authorities who indicated their intentions, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Hull and Torbay said they would proceed with existing plans. Southampton, Scarborough and Solihull said they would resubmit theirs for consultation. Wolverhampton’s councillors were slated to vote on the issue.Great Yarmouth said it would look for a more attrac- tive package of economic benefits. Czechs Gamble Record € 3.5 Billion Among Europeans only the Portuguese and the Danes spend more gambling than the Czechs, whose betting this year on lotteries, slot machines and in casinos is expected to hit a record € 3.5 billion. The report in the Prague Daily Monitor and Czech news agency