Testimony before the Massachusetts Legislature
Prof. Charles Nesson
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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Mr. Chairman, Senator Montigny, Representative Flynn, members of the Legislature, thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am here to express opposition to Governor Patrick’s Casino Bill insofar as it would make criminals, with fines up to $25,000 and incarceration for up to two years, of people in Massachusetts who play online poker.

My name is Charlie Nesson. I am the Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where I have taught for forty years. I am also the founder and co-director of The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. I come to you today, however, as the president of The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society – GPSTS. We are organizing chapters at leading colleges and universities around the world. Recently, we held team poker matches between Harvard and Yale and between UCLA and USC. In March, we will hold a national tournament.

The idea behind GPSTS is that poker is more than just a fun game. Poker teaches inferential strategic thinking. Poker teaches important life skills, such as numeracy, negotiation, patience, asset management and risk assessment. I teach my law students to play poker because anyone who can hold her own at a poker table is going to do just fine in court or business negotiation.

I know the concern of this hearing is revenue. I shall make three points relating issues of revenue to this bill’s criminalization of online poker.

First, the internet is coming. Face it, the internet is here. To make revenue projections for a future based on the assumption that the law will continue into the future to protect the casinos and lotteries from internet competition is ill advised. To criminalize internet commerce in and from the commonwealth relegates Massachusetts to an internet backwater.

Second, online poker, in comparison to online casino games like blackjack and roulette, does not take money away from casinos. Quite to the contrary, online poker is a boon to live-action poker. Just look at the numbers at the main event of the WSOP. TV didn’t hit until 2003. 2004 is when the combination of TV and online really kicked in. From there the growth in casino poker has been exponential, fed by a mass of players who have learned and honed their poker skills online. In 2004, 316 contestants qualified for the WSOP via online poker satellite competition. In 2005, the number was 1,116. In 2006, it was 1,600. Every major casino in Las Vegas has added or expanded poker rooms in the last few years. Online poker provides a great school for learning to play good poker. It draws people to live action.

Third, and this is my passion, online poker has tremendous positive potential for education. Poker teaches strategy, patience, calm and courage under pressure, all in a form in which students are eager to learn. Embedded in a curriculum showing students the logic and the metaphors of the game, poker offers a tremendous potential driver for education online. Education is among the greatest of our commonwealth’s industries, and global education using the world’s intense interest in the American game of Poker is one of our education industry’s great potentials.

Please, do not criminalize online poker.

Thank you.

Author Contact Info: Charles Nesson, GPSTS