Or skill? It matters because many anti-gambling laws have exceptions for games of skill. From an article in the LA Times:
Other recent skirmishes include a South Carolina case in which five men were arrested in a 2006 raid on a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. They were convicted this year by a municipal court judge who said that he agreed that poker hinged on skill, but that he thought it wasn’t clear whether that was relevant under state law. The men are appealing their convictions.
In Columbia County, Pa., a judge dismissed charges in January against a man accused of running a poker game out of his garage, ruling that he hadn’t committed a crime because when skill predominates, it’s not gambling.
But in a second Pennsylvania case, a Westmoreland County jury last month rejected a man’s contention that the Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments he hosted in local fire halls were legal because they were games of skill.
Can you give an operational definition of a game of skill? Is tic-tack-toe a game of skill? (a bit of trivia: I once bet Matt Rabin I could beat him in 5 games of tic-tack-toe out of 50. I won the bet.) Is rock-scissors-paper a game of chance?
Trilby Tilt: The Volokh Conspiracy.
Cheap Talk 
8 comments
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September 6, 2009 at 1:54 am
Economists Do It With Models
If rock, paper scissors is purely a game of chance, how could there be strategy books about it? 🙂
September 6, 2009 at 2:29 am
SharkScopers
Poker is both gambling and a game of skill. Gambling and the emotions that go with winning and losing money is what makes poker a game of skill. The best players are able to handle the variance, push through them, and become better players. The less skilled gamblers get to attached to money, chase losses, and ultimately lose their money.
September 6, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Bob
The best argument I’ve heard for Poker being a game of skill is to consider whether you can lose intentionally. Now consider if you can lose intentionally in games of chance, like a lottery or roulette. Games of chance don’t allow for you to control your result, and have neither good nor bad strategies. To me, the existence of bad strategies implies the existence of good one – so this is my definition of a game of skill.
September 6, 2009 at 5:48 pm
poker rakeback
If poker were a game of chance, then if I played Phil Ivey heads up in poker 100 times, we would each win 50 of those matches. I can honestly say that there is no chance of that occurring. There are so many decisions to be made in poker including pot odds, position, mental state of opponent that no reasonable person would say it was a game of chance!
September 7, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Andrew
I guess the deeper question is, why is gambling a crime?
As for poker, can you really argue that hockey or baseball contain no elements of chance? Also, much of the skill in poker is in making profit over a long string of hands. It’s too bad that televised poker emphasizes the single hand when really the goal there is to gain a statistical edge that really only is realized over a long time. My favourite analogy to a “real” sport is baseball where a single game or single at bat is not that important, instead winning series and grinding out the long season is how the best are determined.
September 7, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Ben
It’s already been mentioned a few times, but if one person can be consistently better than another over the long haul I would classify it as a game of skill.
October 2, 2009 at 12:53 pm
john
Is Poker a Game of Chance?
poker is a 80% game and 20% chance
December 6, 2016 at 10:56 pm
Ashleigh
As an example, a buddy of quarry feeds proteins tavern most mornings for breakfast that fees $2.