Are Poker Contests going to be popular in the US ? Recent Court ruling

TruePoker CEO · #1 08-27-2007, 06:50 PM

According to a thread in Poker Legislation, in a recent Federal lawsuit involving AOL skill games and other games, "the plaintiff, Charles Humphrey Jr. of Colorado, claimed that the player registration fees, ranging from $9.95 to $499.95 per team, were essentially wagers or bets and sought to recover those amounts as gambling losses under the qui tam laws of states whose laws were supposedly violated.

Judge Cavanaugh found that where entry fees are unconditional and prizes are guaranteed, reasonable entry fees charged by the sponsor of a contest are not wagers or bets. He observed that spelling bees, track meets and beauty pageants would constitute gambling if all it took was the combination of an entry fee and a prize. "

We saw this post today and added some 10 player Poker Contests to our TruePoker games. They pay out a guaranteed $100 and $30 respectively and have a reasonable fee for entry and not surprisingly, run as soon as 10 players enter.

Before we develop a US marketing campaign for Poker Contests, we wamt to test the market. Please feel free to give me your feedback at management@truepoker.com.

BGnight · #2 08-27-2007, 07:00 PM

lol donktests

TruePoker CEO · #3 08-27-2007, 07:27 PM

Thanks for the bump, I guess.

MicroBob · #4 08-27-2007, 07:35 PM

TPCEO - I think this could be a significant ruling because obviously there are other games out there that charge entry-fees that aren't considered gambling at all for some reason while poker gets the shaft.

Even in the U.S. for a live-tourney it has to take place in a casino even when you're just betting with tourney-chips/fake-money after you've paid your entry-fee.

I suspect that for a Bridge or Gin tourney with an entry-fee there isn't such a restriction that it can only take place in a casino.

I used to like to play in live chess tournaments that could sometimes charge high-ish entry-fees and these can be held pretty much anywhere.

So this aspect of being able to play other games online for money while supposedly poker, especially poker-tournaments, is somehow considered tabboo has always kind of confused me.

I do have a Q though.
I don't understand what you're talking about wrt your new 'poker contests'.
Are these just SNG's that you are giving a different title somehow?
How are these things different than SNG's?

I'm giving you a chance to spam away in here on whatever it is you're trying to do here because I'm kind of curious and don't understand.

whangarei · #5 08-28-2007, 05:21 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Are these just SNG's that you are giving a different title somehow? How are these things different than SNG's?

[/ QUOTE ]
I am curious about this as well TPC.

Bishop22 · #6 08-28-2007, 05:37 AM

I don't know, I just like this guy, downloading and depositing..

TruePoker CEO · #7 08-28-2007, 09:54 AM

"Are these just SNG's that you are giving a different title somehow?"

If a Court wants the event to be called a "Contest", then it will be called a Contest. Actually, we posted our Poker Contests with the rules we did because it was easy to do so with existing software in about 10 minutes time.

To my understanding, the sole defining element of a SitnGo is that it commences when X players are registered. The Poker Contests we posted share that feature, but it is NOT an essential element of a Poker Contest.

There is nothing to gain by labeling Poker Contests as SitNGoes. The current version we offer yields the winners the same prize structure, for the same financial contribution, and the "start" of the tourney is determined by it filling up. The similarity of those charateristics to a traditional S&G do not define a "Poker Contest" however.

There is no reason why a Poker Contest "must" look only like a S&G. In fact there are numerous varieties that occurred to us, but would require additional time to post.However, the "start" time feature is not an essential element. A multi-table guaranteed structure, running at a set hour could also qualify as a Poker Contest. We just didn't do an MTT on the fly.

If this seems acceptable to the market, we will post other versions, which are not tied to the S&G "start when full" model.

(I wanted to post something for public play which meets the apparent parameters of a Poker Contest as soon as possible, to be able prompt the discussion, but also claim a "first use" for legal reasons .... in case some later company tried to claim a patent.)

1p0kerboy · #8 08-28-2007, 10:09 AM

[ QUOTE ]
(I wanted to post something for public play which meets the apparent parameters of a Poker Contest as soon as possible, to be able prompt the discussion, but also claim a "first use" for legal reasons .... in case some later company tried to claim a patent.)

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Can something like this really be patented?
2. Is TruePoker likely to claim a patent?

whangarei · #9 08-28-2007, 06:30 PM

Thanks for the explanation TPC. I wish you luck with it. Could be a big win for all of us.

MicroBob · #10 08-28-2007, 09:58 PM

[ QUOTE ]

To my understanding, the sole defining element of a SitnGo is that it commences when X players are registered. The Poker Contests we posted share that feature, but it is NOT an essential element of a Poker Contest.

There is nothing to gain by labeling Poker Contests as SitNGoes. The current version we offer yields the winners the same prize structure, for the same financial contribution, and the "start" of the tourney is determined by it filling up. The similarity of those charateristics to a traditional S&G do not define a "Poker Contest" however.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I must be pretty dumb because I've read this 4 times and still don't understand what it means.

Can someone explain to me a bit more simply what exactly these 'poker contests' are?
I really don't understand what they are trying to do here.