A ridiculously trivial legal case hit another milestone last week as the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled against two café owners who were arrested back in 2007 (yes, we’re going back almost a decade) for running a €10 re-buy poker tournament at their establishment.
Richard Blaas and Rene Kurver owned the Amsterdam’s Café de Viersprong Bussum and, as stated above, ran a modest poker tournament at their business. The tourneys, which were held in 2006, would attract as many as 70 players. Twice courts ruled that the small, private poker tournament did not violate the country’s gambling laws since poker is a game of skill, so it appeared that, as of early in 2014 when the second ruling came down, the two men were clear of any charges.*
Prosecutors were oddly persistent, though, and last week, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal reversed the earlier decisions, saying that poker was a game of chance, not skill, and therefore Blaas and Kurver had run afoul of the law.
Their attorney, Peter Plasman, argued that the more hands that are played, the more skill becomes the predominant factor in success, which is why we see many of the same players making the final table in large poker tournaments. He also said that since the Netherlands tax office actually accepts the occupation of professional poker player as a valid business, that should indicate that the law sees poker as a game of skill.
But his arguments were to no avail, as the Court essentially said that since players have no control over what cards are dealt, poker is a game of chance and thus running a poker tournament in a café is illegal.
Plasman was also counsel for Dutch professional poker player and tournament organizer Steven van Zadelhoff in 2010, who was facing similar charges to that of Blaas and Kurver. Plasman won that case as well as the earlier Blaas/Kurver cases.
Plasman feels, as many of us do, that arresting people and dragging them into extended legal affairs for hosting poker tournaments that cost a few Euros. “The fact that two different courts came to the same conclusion might make the prosecutor say that it’s time to halt bringing people in front of the criminal court. That is to me a sound reasoning, but I can’t be sure,” he told PokerNews Europe at the time.
Blaas and Kurver were each fined €1,250 for organizing the poker tournaments, but the fines have been waived because of how long the case took to resolve.
*In the meantime, their business went under when they were arrested.