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I was at the Gutshot poker club in Clerkenwell in January on the day that Derek Kelly lost his court case. That afternoon the jury had decided that Kelly, then chairman of Gutshot Poker, had profited from a game of chance without holding a gaming licence, in contravention of the Gaming Act of 1968. Kelly, a stocky middle-aged Irishman who has the energy and charisma to turn most things his way, had failed to persuade the court that poker should be regarded in law as a game of skill rather than chance. At the club, before the night’s tournament began, he made a short, bullish speech. “The casinos won today,” he said. “Big money won today.” At this, all the much littler money in the room booed the casinos and cheered the Gutshot; then the evening’s business—and pleasure—began.
Today, despite Kelly’s prosecution, the Gutshot continues to be open for business. Its premises are half the size they were before the case, but it has retained its core, new-generation clientele: the twentysomethings in their sunglasses and baseball caps, who sit at the tables wired into their iPods, riffling their chips and trying fancy moves, and sometimes (to the annoyance of the older players) bursting into testosterone-rush posturing—punching the air when they get a bit of luck, or shouting “Get in,” as if a Tuesday night £5 rebuy tournament in Clerkenwell were only a flop away from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
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