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Poker Wins This Hand in South Carolina
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA --
A judge hearing the appeal of five South Carolina men convicted of breaking laws against gambling by playing poker has reversed the convictions. Judge R. Markley Dennis said the dominance of skill over luck in poker would likely lead to a state Supreme Court reversal of the original court's ruling that poker is illegal gambling under state law.
The judge also agreed with attorneys for the defendants that state law on the subject “is ambiguous and must be construed in favor of appellants.”
The reversal of the conviction does not finish the case, as Markley still has to issue a final order. The judge asked defense lawyers for a potential order he may review.
The case stems from a police raid of a poker game held at a private home in Mount Pleasant. Almost twenty-five people were charged, with the five in this case made up of those who resisted government pressure to settle.
The case becomes one of many in which judges determined that poker avoids being illegal gambling by its skill determinant, but others have been reversed, such as the Colorado case overturning a "skill" ruling. The South Carolina group did not celebrate, as an appeal to the state Supreme Court is considered likely.
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