[adanthar]

There is nothing stopping any interested party from pressing both prongs of attack. In fact, that is likely the best option, the difference being the playing field.

Trying to wedge a distinction between luck and skill on the federal level is an interesting challenge but one that is ultimately futile, because it will never pass. The main reason for this is that we are only as far along as we are because the WTO issue is pressing our case for us; if we remove the WTO from the equation, legalization before January, 2009 is utterly impossible. Therefore, since the WTO argument ignores luck vs. skill entirely, there's no point rehashing it on the federal level.

On the other hand, *if* the WTO argument wins and online gambling is "legalized", the likely result is that many states, forced to allow access to everyone on equal terms but probably retaining the right to ban whatever categories of gambling they see fit to, will start by banning all non-lottery games of chance. This is where the skill game argument comes in and can be used effectively. In addition, it should also be argued right now in states where chance vs. skill is already the deciding factor.

However, trying to get a skill game exemption federally *right now* is thoroughly pointless. The first Congressman to point out that this gets the US nowhere re: the WTO will win an FOF-branded cookie and that'll be the end of that. I think OB-Wan is entirely correct on this one.