Games of skill

A full house of poker players converged on Capitol Hill last week to argue that Internet gambling prohibitions are unfairly restricting their rights.

The Los Angeles Times reported that several card sharks came to Washington to lobby lawmakers last Wednesday as members of the Poker Players Alliance.

"Poker is a game that is deeply complex," poker star Annie Duke said. "But the complexities don't reveal themselves until you know a lot about the game. ... What I do is not gambling."

We'll leave that argument for another day. But the card players are holding aces when they contend the federal ban on Internet gaming is just plain silly.

One problem, though.

Some of the card players seemed more interested in overturning the ban on their own preferred pastime, rather than in killing the law altogether. Thus Ms. Duke's contention that when she plays poker she's "not gambling."

Notes the Times: "Federal law distinguishes games that require a certain level of intellectual engagement to succeed from those in which players rely largely on luck to reap rewards and regulates the latter more rigorously. By being classified as a game of skill rather than a game of chance, poker would face fewer legal restrictions."

There is a bill pending in Congress that would carve out an exemption from the Internet gambling ban for poker players. Far preferable is the more comprehensive measure proposed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., that would address the idiocy of attempting to micromanage what adults may do in the privacy of their own computer rooms -- whether it be playing poker, making online sports bets, or engaging in some other form of Internet wagering.

The Frank proposal is mired in committee. But it's the bill that deserves the support of the 800,000-strong Poker Players Alliance.