HLS Group To Protest Bill

Harvard Law School’s Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) met on Beacon Hill yesterday morning to protest a provision of a gaming bill—sponsored by Law School graduate Deval L. Patrick ’78—that would criminalize online poker in Massachusetts.

About 30 poker aficionados, led by veteran Harvard law professor Charles R. Nesson ’60, assembled near the State House, arguing that banning Internet poker would deny card players a legitimate source of entertainment and income. Under the terms of the ban, online gambling would be punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment and a $25,000 fine.

The Harvard demonstrators were met by a large assembly of union workers, who gathered to show support for Patrick’s beleaguered gaming bill, which would permit three new resort casinos to be built in Massachusetts.

Supporters of the ban claim that online poker encourages gambling addiction. Patrick added the provision to his bill to assuage critics who fear that building three casinos in the state will cause a dramatic increase in gambling among residents.

Law student Andrew M. Woods, executive director of the GPSTS, characterized the ban as the actions of an overaggressive nanny state, pointing out that it included games in which no money is at stake.

“How would you feel if they outlawed movies?” Woods asked.

He argued that poker was different from pure games of chance, since it includes major elements of skill.

“Is poker gambling? Yes,” Woods said. “But the question is whether or not it’s a skill game more than a chance game. It almost certainly is.”

Nesson said that he had sent Patrick a letter outlining his opposition to the provision, but had not yet received a reply.

“Who wrote the bill’s provision trying to make playing online poker a crime?” Nesson asked in the letter. “Do you stand behind it now?”

Woods emphasized that the GPSTS was indifferent to the overall gaming bill and was only concerned with having the online poker ban removed from the legislation.

Still, the union members who demonstrated at the event said that the bill should be approved in its current form. Robert Black, a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25, said that online poker was directing money out of state and that banning online poker and building casinos would redirect that money to Massachusetts.

While Black added that the proposed casinos were crucial to revitalizing blighted parts of the state, he nevertheless said he expects the entire bill to be defeated.