Supreme Court rules private poker tournaments illegal in Denmark

The court thereby upheld the ruling of the Eastern High Court, finding Frederik Hostrup-Pedersen, head of the Danish Poker Federation, guilty of arranging gambling events.

The Eastern High Court overturned the initial ruling by Copenhagen city court in favour of the poker federation allowing tournaments to be held, handing down a us$ 931.472 fine to Hostrup-Pedersen. However, after a majority of the Supreme Court justices found him guilty, all agreed to dismiss the fine, saying the city court ruling put the illegality of poker tournaments in doubt.

The city court ruling allowing private poker tournaments stemmed from June 2007. The subsequent High Court reversal of that decision in December of the same year affected around 500,000 residents who regularly played poker in tournaments. “It’s an unfortunate ruling because we wanted to show Danes that poker is a thinking man’s sport comparable to chess or backgammon,” said Hostrup-Pedersen.

But a new proposal from the Conservative Party is seeking to make private tournaments legal again, as long as the maximum entrance fee to a tournament is us$ 55.8.

“You should be allowed to have a fun evening with friends at a poker tournament without feeling like a criminal,” said Tom Behnke, the party’s political affairs spokesman. “The alternative is that fathers who want to play are forced to go to a casino.”