It’s been a slow summer for the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, or GPSTS. After all, the organization sees much, if not all, of its participation from college students across the United States. The GPSTS “views poker as an exceptional game of skill that can be used as a powerful teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education,” according to its website. The GPSTS is another important piece of the puzzle when it comes to encouraging legalized and regulated internet gambling in the United States. Now that summer has ended, the GPSTS has begun to ramp up its efforts at its home chapter at Harvard as well as other chapters spread throughout the country. PocketFives.com sat down with Executive Director Andrew Woods to learn more.
Woods just completed his bar exam and plans to spend half of his time working with the GPSTS and half of his time consulting. He told PocketFives.com that the immediate goal of the organization is to create an open online curriculum: “Our immediate plans include developing a curriculum. We’re trying to put together an online forum that we’ll announce in the next couple of weeks. The goal is to move poker out of the framework of gambling and towards more of an intellectual theme. It will eventually become a modular class that can be used around the country.”
Right now, several students and professors are working together to develop the curriculum, which will then be put online for use and edit. The importance of being able to use poker outside of a gambling context bodes well for not only its acceptance on Capitol Hill, but also for its further entrenchment in society. Wood explains, “To a legal audience, we’ve discussed how to use poker terminology to your clients in order to explain yourself. One of the problems we have is that we’re speaking in a legal language. Using poker terms is an incredibly effective way to communicate. For a lawyer, it can be extraordinarily important.”
New chapters for the GPSTS have emerged on the campuses of Duke, Vanderbilt, and Charleston. Other chapters exist on the grounds of Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Dartmouth, NC State, NYU, Tufts, Michigan, Minnesota, and USC. Other schools are developing chapters as well.
While the GPSTS has been on hiatus over the summer, there have been several major events that have happened in the internet gambling industry. The battle between the United States and European Union over discrimination came to a head with the arrival of EU trade representatives. Congressman Barney Frank introduced not one, but two bills. One was struck down in Committee; the other hangs in the balance. The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) will file its formal appeal in the Third Circuit Court.
Woods commented on the recent developments, “What we’ve basically seen is hypocritical and protectionist trade policies coming to a head. The UIGEA was a piece of legislation that wasn’t extremely well thought out. It was an emotional, gut reaction to the perceived threat of internet gaming. We’re seeing the results of that now. We’ve engaged in unfair trade policies that are in direct contradiction to our trade obligations. The member nations have brought to our attention that it’s an unfair law.” All told, the real issue stems from the financial services industry in the United States not knowing what’s legal and what’s not under the UIGEA. Woods surmised, “If you are going to try to make internet gambling illegal, go through the trouble of defining what gambling is.”
Last fall, the GPSTS held an event at its home base at Harvard that featured Jim McManus, Mike Sexton, and Dr. Alan Schoonmaker. The topic: The educational aspects of poker. Expect more intriguing events in 2008 as the organization ramps up its operations. The group was founded by Charles Nesson, the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
Visit GPSTS.org for all of the details or to start a chapter at your own school.
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