Driving from midtown Manhattan to the Catskills and driving to the Poconos takes roughly the same time. As recent posts in the legislation forum have pointed out, there is a very high chance of table games coming to PA within a couple of years (slots already coming).
For this reason I think NYC players need to be focusing less on Indian laws and regulations and trying to focus on just poker - that is, somehow proving that skill is a MUCH more predominant factor than luck.
Last time I posed this question it was left unanswered: isn't there some sort of legal precedent with backgammon (can't seem to find any info online)? Also, as funny as it sounds, pinball? Here is something I found:
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<Pinball is a game that was banned in New York as it was considered to be a gambling game. In 1976 it was reinstated after it was proved to be a game of skill.
A ban on pinball machines in New York City (established in 1942) is lifted when Mr. Roger Sharpe, a writer for Esquire magazine, demonstrates to the City Council the ability to drop the 80 gram balls down any preselected lane at the top of a pinball machine by adjusting the way he pulls back the plunger. (Source: icwhen.com)
http://www.icwhen.com/book/the_1970s/1976.shtml
Testifying before the New York City Council at a hearing on pinball in April 1976, Sharpe, then a 27-year-old magazine editor in Manhattan, played three balls on a Gottlieb Bankshot, explaining to his audience as he played how pinball was a game of skill, not of chance. Sharpe
tells what happened next: "'Even down to this plunger,' I told them, 'there's skill. If I pull this back the right way, I should be able to send the ball into the middle slot.' I actually specified a lane, which, in retrospect, I probably should not have done. I pulled back the plunger, and wouldn't you know, boom boom, it went straight down where I had said [it would go]. These people kind of threw up their hands and said, 'All right. Enough. Fine, thanks.'"
The council reinstated pinball in New York City that summer. (Source: Cigar Aficiado).
http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar...Show_Article/0,2322,608,00.html>
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Still, even if a powerful lobby with political backing and good lawyers could get involved here, the chances might be raised from zero to 5%. Sad.