New Zealand Sees Logic in Poker Laws
Written by Renee K | Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
While the United States is still struggling to sort out its own poker legislation and decide what constitutes legal or illegal gambling, one little country has is all figured out. A recent court ruling in New Zealand found in favor of a media group that promoted a .net poker site and found that, most importantly, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour does not constitute gambling per se.
The problems started when the New Zealand government’s Department of Internal Affairs charged that TVWorks, owners of local stations TV3 and C4, had advertised the .net arm of PokerStars online poker site. The government claimed that since PokerStars provides gambling services, this counters New Zealand’s law and the advertising should be removed.
The TV station, however, claimed that since PokerStars.net is a play-for-free site, it was acting totally within the law by running the ads.
In his ruling, Justice David J Harvey found that PokerStars.net does not promote an offshore operator, nor was it likely that New Zealanders would be induced to gamble overseas by accessing the site.
It was also ruled that PokerStars.net does not constitute a gambling website and it does not consider itself synonymous with PokerStars.com.
Finally, and what many to believe to be the most significant part of the ruling, the judge found that the Asia Pacific Poker Tour is not an event defined as gambling. Instead, it constitutes a competition since it has an entry fee and prize money at the end.
“Firstly, the nature of the material in the advertisements made it clear that what was being advertised was free websites that do not involve gambling,” wrote the Judge. “Secondly, the .com website is not mentioned at any time. Unless the user knew of the existence of the .com website, no association could be made between PokerStars and that particular website.”
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
