The seventh edition of the conference took place on May 14^th & 15^th, was hosted by the Institute for International Research and had the entire industry’s big players in attendance.

Poker was discussed alongside topics such as change in legal framework, the government gaming agenda or social media games.

This year marked the first time that the Austrian Pokersport Association (APSA) was invited to the conference and President Martin Sturc took the chance to hold a guest lecture titled Poker: “if in need of luck, you play bad” speaking about pokers right to exist as a sport.

His annotations, accompanied by scientific data, backed up once more the fact that poker is a skill game and should be acknowledged as a mind sport.

In his 25 minutes on stage Martin Sturc also showcased excerpts of his still unpublished master thesis “skill beats luck – the skillfactor in poker”. On the basis of this thesis and game-theory analysis he pointed out weaknesses in the present definition of gambling and presented a new method on how to classify skill games.

It is one mayor objective of the APSA for Poker to be an acknowledged and accepted skill game in Austria. The appearance at the 7^th Gaming & Betting Conference was yet another step in the right direction.