Ok boys play nice. This is a decent discussion of something that DID happen in the UK that potentially effects our industry. There is no need to drag Crack Pipes or insults into the thread.
Obviously the main problem here was the person convicted was operating without a required license. That can and will happen with legal activities in any industry. Moral of the story, get any required licenses before you throw up a shingle and start doing business.
Regarding Poker and its status as a skill game or game of chance its going to come down to oppinion in our cases. We can have fun batting it around, but it doesnt really matter what we say if a court rules otherwise.
One thing I would point out, when you go to Vegas or Atlantic City they specialize in Games of Chance, all larger casinos have a poker room. None I know of have a Chess room. I understand they only take a percentage of rake and it could be on any game, but it still leads me to believe that people in the land based Gaming industry do see poker as a game of chance.