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Last week, Stephen Dubner over at the Freakonomics blog, had an excellent post about Poker: Skill vs Chance. The discussion is important not only for the sake of poker players who want to justify the enormous amount of hours studying and playing the game but also because of the recent Unlawful Online Gambline Act passed in October of last year which forbade US players from participating in online gambling sites. The law specificically states, “games predominantly subject to chance" are effected, of which poker is included. The Freakonomics post is worth reading but one point that I had not heard before was "Is it possible to intentionally lose a poker game?" If the answer is "yes" then, oddly, its more likely poker is a game of skill.

Meanwhile, if poker is a game of skill and can somehow avoid falling under the Online Gambling Act of last year then several stocks will be enormously effected. Helping matters along, Rep. Barney Frank recently introduced a law to Congress which would allow Americans to gamble online again, calling internet gambling a "victimless crime". We set up the Freakonomics Poker Stocks portfolio at Stockpickr which contains the 5 stocks that would be most effected on the long side, as well as 3 stocks on the short side that might get hurt if poker sites were legal again for US players.

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