New Zealand Court Rules Poker Not Gambling

New Zealand has declared the playing of poker a game requiring skill and has dismissed charges brought against .net poker site domains that were supposedly violating New Zealand's Gambling Act of 2003. The Judge for the case David J Harvey dismissed all charges in the case and went on clarifying the court’s position on online poker, and on live tournament poker.
Not only did the court find that .net websites are not gambling sites, but it also found that they are not related to their .com partner sites.
The court also ruled that .net advertisements are not promotions for gambling operators, and that poker tournaments themselves are not gambling but a form of competition.
Justice Harvey replied upon the expert evidence presented by Damon Rasheed, an industry expert who commented about the decision today, "Justice Harvey’s ruling was a common sense result for the industry that will have wide spread implications especially for those jurisdictions with similar legislation, such as Australia and the US, were the distinction between .net advertising and gambling has yet to be the subject of legal challenge."
Judge Harvey said, "Firstly, the nature of the material in the advertisements made it clear that what was being advertised was free websites that do not involve gambling. Secondly, the .com website is not mentioned at any time. Unless the user knew of the existence of the .com website, no association could be made between PokerStars and that particular website. A third reason for rejecting the suggestion that .net and .com sites involve a distinction without a difference lies in the very internet itself....the navigational realties of the internet mean that there is a very significant difference between web addresses of any nature, be they .net .com and .org even although they may be associated with a similar domain name."