Deportation not in cards for founder of poker site

Judge quotes Kenny Rogers in decision to overturn order

As federal court decisions go, Justice Sean Harrington knows that if you’re gonna play the game, you better learn to play it right.

The federal judge got creative with a decision on a deportation case that dealt with international law and the nature of poker, referencing part of a verse and chorus from Kenny Rogers’ 1978 hit, “The Gambler.”

The case centred on Ofer Cohen, an Israeli citizen who visited a friend in Canada in 2013 but was ordered to leave by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada because of a gambling website he had set up. The Immigration and Refugee Board, in its decision to deport Cohen, said because they believed setting up the website was a criminal offence in Israel, it made Cohen inadmissible to Canada.

But Harrington said that was not conclusively proved because under Israeli law, a prohibited game depends “more on chance than on understanding or ability,” and certain forms of poker may be games of skill rather than luck.

Cohen’s website focused on No Limit Texas Hold’em poker. No Israeli court decision mentions it as a prohibited game, Harrington noted.

“Israeli courts have not held that all forms of poker are prohibited games. There has not been a blanket condemnation of poker as such,” Harrington said in his decision.

Because of that, Harrington approved Cohen’s request for judicial review, and quashed the decision by the immigration board.

Closing his argument, Harrington let Rogers do the talking.

“If you’re gonna play the game, boy / You better learn to play it right / You got to know when to hold ’em / Know when to fold ’em / Know when to walk away.”