mike-sexton-wpt

Mike Sexton (photo courtesy World Poker Tour)

The trial has been a long time in the making. It actually began in April of 2006 with a home poker game and will culminate in a decision by a Municipal Court Judge J. Lawrence Duffy in a South Carolina courtroom in February of 2009. And taking the stand today on behalf of the defendants in the case will be Mike Sexton, who will testify as an expert witness that poker is indeed a game of skill.

The home game in question had actually been occurring in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina for nearly 30 years, according to the Boston Globe. The $20 buy-in hold’em sessions were a welcome reprieve each week…until the game was raided on April 4, 2006 by six police officers, with guns drawn and sporting full protective SWAT gear, who seized several thousand dollars in cash. Bob Chimento and numerous other players were charged with breaking the law by playing a game of chance. The law, in fact, was penned in 1802 and bans the playing of any game with cards or dice in a person’s home.

The majority of the players charged pleaded guilty and paid the $250 fine. But Chimento, Scott Richards, Michael Williamson, Jeremy Brestel, and John Taylor Willis opted to take it to court and have their fates decided by a judge. Attorney Jeff Phillips has taken the case and will argue for the defendants that Texas hold’em is a game of skill.

Phillips said in a previous interview, “The particular law in South Carolina is so antiquated and so garbled that it’s virtually indecipherable. At some point, you need to look at the facts. Poker is not like any other game in the casino. Poker is predominantly a game of skill; therefore it should be treated differently.”

Sexton, long-time poker player, author, commentator, and “ambassador” for the game of poker, will take the stand in Charleston, South Carolina today to use his vast knowledge and background in an attempt to convince the judge that the law is not only outdated, but poker should not be categorized as anything but a game of skill. Thus, poker should not be included in the enforcement of the 1802 law and the defendants should be found not guilty.

Also scheduled to testify as an expert witness is Robert Hannum, a statistics professor at the University of Denver who recently assisted the defense in a Colorado trial in which the defendants, poker players, were found not guilty of breaking the law because poker was not a game of chance. And preparation for the trial has been assisted by the Poker Players Alliance as well as poker veteran Bob Ciaffone.

Defendant Chimento noted, “As I see it, it is a Constitutional right to play cards.”

The judge’s decision is not expected in the case until next week.

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