[Zetack]

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If gambling is wagering on an uncertain outcome, virtually every thing we do, and certainly every game we play for money, including professional sports, is gambling. If the outcome were certain, why play the game?

Gambling in a more technical (and legal) sense, is wagering on an outcome OVER WHICH YOU HAVE NO INFLUENCE OR CONTROL, or insufficient control to positively affect the outcome.

By this more precise definition, poker is not gambling because in poker the player influences the outcome of the hand by influencing the actions of the other players (your bet or raise induces a fold), and controlling their own actions (folding, and hence losing less money than another player who was not smart enough to fold).

Of course chance is an important factor in poker, but the lesson of thousands of players and millions of hands is that chance does not determine by itself who wins and loses at poker, the decisions of the players is the more important factor. And the decisions of the players are not "chance."

Blackjack has an element of skill, but in blackjack that element of skill cannot overcome the math/probabilities - no matter how good you play, you are always subject to the next card (even card counters, they just play long enough for the chance to even out). The element of folding is what places poker just above blackjack in the range of chance v. skill precisely because it is a way to overcome the chance element completely.

Skallagrim

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Yes, Skallagrim - Thanks for the collaborative comment. How many of you think that paying tuition bill for school is gambling? You never know that you will end up making a lot of money when you graduate which is uncertain outcome. However, if you are smart and determined you will gain a lot more when you graduate. At the same time, if you don't have sufficient enough bankroll to invest yourself into the school that is also stupid too because you won't be able to buy or do anything else because you don't pay other things (rent, car payment, and etc.) then you go broke. Will you blame your odds when you get broke this way?

-LuxuryMaster
-Blogspot: luxurymaster.blogspot.com

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I'm simply stumped that both of you are ignoring the element of wagering. You seem to conflating the idea of taking a risk (sometimes called taking a gamble, which I suppose leads to the confusion) with gambling.

Participating in professional sports is gambling? I show up to the park, I play the game, I draw a salary. There isn't any wagering here, ergo its not gambling.

When you go to university and you pay your tuition, you haven't laid a wager with the university. If you get a good job after college the university doesn't pay you off. Your tuition is simply a fee for a service provided (instructors, classrooms, computer labs, etc) and not a wager of any kind. Ergo, paying tuition is not gambling.

My wife and I went to an antique expo, last weekend. It cost five bucks each to get in. The outcome was uncertain, would we be able to find any furniture we liked? Would be be able to afford it, or find the price worth the furniture? As it turned out, we bought two pieces. On our way out the Expo didn't hand us each ten bucks (or any money at all), because we simply didn't wager anything, even though we spent money on an uncertain outcome. Money spent plus uncertainty of outcome, does not equal gambling.

--Zetac