[almostbusto]

even if computers sucked at chess the market for gambling on chess would still be slim. ratings are too accurate, which means that someones EV in a match can be very accurately predicted. in which case, people are going to learn right off to not play players rated higher than themselves. So the only way to get a steady stream of matches is to engage in some form of hustling/sandbagging.

if you allowed players to negotiate time handicaps that might help the matter but chess isn't the easiest game to handicap.

fwiw, kasparovchess, which is now defunct, used to have the option to gamble on games or at least they advertised it. it might be possible that that feature never got off the ground, i never actually played there.

EDIT: just gotta be a nit and say for the record texas holdem NL/PL/FL or otherwise is not the poker variant requiring the most skill, and its not even close. also, poker is entirely solvable, and it is possible that a computer will be able to play perfectly in the future. computers can already play HU shortstack NL holdem perfectly.