Gutshot Verdict: Guilty

Derek Kelly, Chairman of the Gutshot Private Members' Club in London was found guilty today violating the U.K.’s Gaming Act of 1968. Officially, he was charged with two violations, but it can be assumed that the skirting of the law took place daily.

The Act makes charging patrons a fee for a game involving chance, rather than pure skill, a crime if the club is not licensed. Undercover police offers visited Gutshot in December 2004 and found that the club took a fee of £270 from a £2,165 pot. In January 2005, the officers witnessed a tournament where players were charged £22 to play, with £2 of that going to the house. According to the prosecution, these fees are illegal under the Gaming Act.

Kelly argued that a license was not necessary for his club because poker is a game of skill. According to the defense, the Act applies to games of pure luck, such as roulette. Kelly attempted to convince the jury that luck was not involved in poker, but to no avail.

The jury decided that chance was involved in poker, and since the Gaming Act considers a game to be a game of chance if luck is at all involved, Kelly was convicted of his Gaming Act violations.

Justice Simon Wilkinson said that Kelly would most likely only have to pay a fine and not serve prison time. The judge was quoted by the BBC as saying that had Kelly been found not guilty, it “…could have caused enormous problems for the gaming industry because then you have the green light in some people's eyes for unregulated poker.”

The shame of it all is that Kelly could have avoided all of this by simply acquiring the proper gaming license. There are many legal poker rooms in London, so why Kelly and the rest of Gutshot management decided that their establishment did not need a license is puzzling.

Kelly said that the club will not close, but they will need to “…rearrange what we do…”

Originally published January 16, 2007