Professor Ben van der Genugten, an expert in probability and mathematical statistics, has challenged the Dutch Supreme Court's classification of poker as a game of chance, citing a formula he has co-developed and which is used by the courts. The formula rates poker at a higher skill level than most fantasy sports, which courts consider to be a game of skill.
The professor is calling for poker to be re-classified as a game of skill.
The challenge may affect the outcome of an upcoming trial of two people who were arrested last year for organising a poker tournament in the Dutch town of Bussum. This trial is the first one to take place since the courts rated poker as a game of chance ten years ago.
The formula created by Van der Genugten was used in the application of the Dutch Betting and Gaming act to classify fantasy sports games, but the same formula, which describes the relationship between the 'chance effect' and the 'learning effect' of the game was not applied to poker.
The formula considers the learning effect as the difference in the outcome of a game when played by a beginner, and a player who knows the game well. This result can be used to quantify skill. A pure game of skill has a skill value of 1, while a pure game of chance has a skill value of 0. Fantasy sports were rated at 0.3, while poker was rated at 0.4.
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