Harvard Goes After Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick Over Planned Online Poker Prohibition

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick wants to follow in Washington State's footsteps and make gambling online a Class C felony.  That state's most prestigious university will do its part to stop him.

A card-playing Harvard Law professor and his poker-crazy students will stage a protest today outside the State House rallying against Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino plan.

Scott Van Voorhis of the Boston Herald reports that while most opponents, ranging from church leaders to social activists, will be warning of the perils of expanded gambling, the Harvard group will be arguing there is not nearly enough.

In particular, the newly formed Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society is targeting a provision in the governor’s bill that Massachusetts residents caught gambling online would face up to two years in jail and a fine of as much as $25,000.

Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, an avid player who formed the Harvard poker society, plans to testify today at a State House hearing on Patrick’s casino bill. The Harvard group contends that as many as 400,000 Massachusetts residents play poker online.

“I don’t think filling our expensive jail cells with poker players is what Massachusetts voters had in mind when they elected Deval Patrick,” Nesson said in a statement.

Deval has seemingly gone unchallenged in his attempts to prohibit online poker as a means of boosting his state's own casino industry, despite a recent ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that found the US Government has engaged in "protectionism" of its own gambling industry, specifically the horse racing sector. 

The Herald points out that the rally comes after weeks of crusading by Nesson and other members of his Harvard poker society on the issue. Nesson has written to Patrick, and to top casino executives with an interest in Massachusetts, urging that the penalties for online gambling be dropped, said Andrew Woods, a Harvard law student and a spokesman for the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.

The group has also enlisted the help of the  nearly one million player strong Poker Players Alliance and its leader, Alfonse D'Amato.

“It is hypocritical to attach this to a casino gambling bill,” said Woods. “You could get a couple DUIs before you get two years in jail in the commonwealth.”

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

Originally published March 18, 2008 10:57 am EST