Gutshot Trial Begins
Yesterday saw the opening of the long-awaited court case over the legality of operations at The Gutshot.
BBC News
Poker News UK
I'm not sure how nervous I should be about this. The Gutshot is pretty much the only place I play live poker and it would be shit to see it closed down. But then the new gambling law comes in this year which will make 'small stakes' poker legal in pubs, so there are probably numerous loopholes that will enable it to continue operating in some shape or form.
What concerns me about this trial is the difficulty if educating a jury enough about the working of the game to be able to persuade them that in the long run it's all about skill.
A colleague of mine ended up sitting next to the defence's barrister on the train a couple of months ago. Naturally he was oozing confidence. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, he represented Spearmint Rhino when their girls were caught giving blow jobs to spies from Stringfellows. He successfully got Spearmint Rhino off the hook and they managed to reapply for their licence. Poker and prostitution go well together so here's hoping he can do the same for The Gutshot.
BBC News
Poker News UK
I'm not sure how nervous I should be about this. The Gutshot is pretty much the only place I play live poker and it would be shit to see it closed down. But then the new gambling law comes in this year which will make 'small stakes' poker legal in pubs, so there are probably numerous loopholes that will enable it to continue operating in some shape or form.
What concerns me about this trial is the difficulty if educating a jury enough about the working of the game to be able to persuade them that in the long run it's all about skill.
A colleague of mine ended up sitting next to the defence's barrister on the train a couple of months ago. Naturally he was oozing confidence. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, he represented Spearmint Rhino when their girls were caught giving blow jobs to spies from Stringfellows. He successfully got Spearmint Rhino off the hook and they managed to reapply for their licence. Poker and prostitution go well together so here's hoping he can do the same for The Gutshot.
posted by Pinky @ 12:35 PM
2 Comments:
At 11:03 PM,
Anonymous said…
Wotcha Mr Pink.
Sorry 'bout the verdict, man. I think it would definitely be fair to say that each individual hand is a matter of luck, but overall it's a game of skill. Sentencing's been set for mid-Feb, so we'll see whether the verdict really matters then.
Tom.
At 9:52 AM,
Pinky said…
Hey Tom
I think the sentence if fairly irrelevent. It's more the precedent that this verdict sets.
The judge has already said that he thinks a custodial sentence would be inappropriate. I think costs are about £16k so he's probably looking at something less then £20k total.
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