Arkansas Allows Keno as Skill Game, Not Poker

Now Arkansas will allow electronic keno at racetracks in the state, as the Arkansas Racing Commission has decided that keno is also a game of skill.

Reason and logic don't seem to play in the gambling laws of the United States. First the Game Show Network runs an online competition on Father's Day for big cash prizes, with a fee charged, but its legal because the game played was Scrabble. Scrabble features players with a randomly dealt set of letters, using strategy to outscore the opponents. Poker, which features players who get dealt a random set of cards and then use strategy to outplay the opponent, is illegal.

The idea behind the law is that Scrabble is a game of skill, while poker is a game of chance.

Now Arkansas will allow electronic keno at racetracks in the state, as the Arkansas Racing Commission has decided that keno is also a game of skill.

Keno is a game similar to an instant lottery, in which players pick random numbers and hope to match randomly picked numbers generated by a computer. The more numbers played, the greater the possible reward if the computer picks match.

State law in Arkansas specifies electronic games of skill are permitted at the state's tracks. Gaming Laboratories International does consulting work for the Racing Commission, and they determined that keno met the requirements to be legal.

Over 1200 machines are in place or planned for installation at the state's two tracks.

The idea that keno involves any skill, let alone more than poker, demonstrates the craziness of American gambling laws. Online poker is rejected as a skill game by those who hate gambling, yet online Scrabble is pushed by an American cable channel in full view of the law without consequences. Keno, without skill whatsoever, is ruled by a professional gaming company as skill while poker is chance. Hopefully, sanity will soon return.