According to Judge Jack Weinstein’s ruling in the US v Lawrence Dicristina case at the EDNY, poker is predominated by skill instead of luck, which means the defendant had not violated the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA). The ruling was a blast in the poker community for legally establishing in the US that poker is not gambling.
Whether this has any effect on poker in the United States, it is hard to tell. Ex-Full Tilt Poker managers, however, have already pleaded the case to dismiss or delay charges against them. Howard Lederer’s lawyers instantly filed a request for a status conference to Judge Leonard Sand of the SDNY to discuss the impact of the EDNY ruling on their case.
Lederer’s lawyers, joined by those of Chris Ferguson and Rafael Furst, ask that if poker really is not illegal gambling, why are the charges against the former FTP leadership still not dropped or at least delayed until Judge Weinstein’s ruling is sustained on appeal.
US District Attorney Preet Bahara, on the other hand, says that a status conference is “premature and unworkable,” as the Lederer-case is not affected by the EDNY ruling. Weinstein’s ruling does not bind Judge Sands and even if he upholds it, it does not concern other charges, to be amended by 10 September with “additional statutory grounds for forfeiture and other relief,” Bahara argued.
Holding on to anything that can dismiss some of the charges against him, Lederer had already filed a motion in July to dismiss the charges of fraud and money laundering for lack of evidence.
Whether this has any effect on poker in the United States, it is hard to tell. Ex-Full Tilt Poker managers, however, have already pleaded the case to dismiss or delay charges against them. Howard Lederer’s lawyers instantly filed a request for a status conference to Judge Leonard Sand of the SDNY to discuss the impact of the EDNY ruling on their case.
Lederer’s lawyers, joined by those of Chris Ferguson and Rafael Furst, ask that if poker really is not illegal gambling, why are the charges against the former FTP leadership still not dropped or at least delayed until Judge Weinstein’s ruling is sustained on appeal.
US District Attorney Preet Bahara, on the other hand, says that a status conference is “premature and unworkable,” as the Lederer-case is not affected by the EDNY ruling. Weinstein’s ruling does not bind Judge Sands and even if he upholds it, it does not concern other charges, to be amended by 10 September with “additional statutory grounds for forfeiture and other relief,” Bahara argued.
Holding on to anything that can dismiss some of the charges against him, Lederer had already filed a motion in July to dismiss the charges of fraud and money laundering for lack of evidence.
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