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The Dominant Factor Test (also known by several variants such as the Dominant Principle Test or Dominant Element Theory) is the principle that most U.S. jurisdictions (states or territories) use in determining, legally, what is and is not gambling.〔 page=8〕 The California Supreme Court said: :The term 'game of chance' has an accepted meaning established by numerous adjudications. Although different language is used in some of the cases in defining the term, the definitions are substantially the same. It is the character of the game rather than a particular player's skill or lack of it that determines whether the game is one of chance or skill. The test is not whether the game contains an element of chance or an element of skill but which of them is the dominating factor in determining the result of the game. The principle is currently the basis for numerous litigation cases around the United States as it relates to poker. Poker is acknowledged to possess two of the three criteria often associated with gambling. Namely, that the player risks something (consideration) in order to potentially gain something (reward). Generally, it is the third element, chance, that is disputed. As there is no doubt that an element of chance exists in all endeavors, most states have used the Dominant Factor Test when determining if a game is primarily a game of skill or a game of chance. ==The argument== The Dominant Factor Test was defined in a 1973 Alaskan case called ''Morrow v State''. The four qualifications defined by the court in ''Morrow'' are: :#Participants must have a distinct possibility of exercising skill and must have sufficient data upon which to calculate an informed judgment. :#Participants must have the opportunity to exercise the skill, and the general class of participants must possess the skill. :#Skill or the competitors efforts must sufficiently govern the results. :#The standard of skill must be known to the participants, and this standard must govern the results.〔 Golf, for example, meets the above criteria. A professional golfer, such as Tiger Woods, could be expected to beat the casual weekend golfer. Even if the golfer were to place a wager on the outcome, the results would be determined primarily upon the skill of the competitors. The professional could place a 100 to 1 wager and know that his money was safe. There is a slim chance that the professional might lose, but as the dominant factor is skill, not luck, the event would be not be deemed gambling. In states that use the Dominant Factor Test, a bowling alley, golf course, or bar could hold a tournament where they collect an entry fee and award a prize without violating anti-gambling laws. Similarly, individuals could make bets on the outcomes of these events without violating anti-gambling laws. Poker experts generally agree that poker is a game of skill. In evaluating writing the opinion in ''Pennsylvania v Dent'', the judge wrote, "The compelling case that Texas Hold'em is much more a game of skill is found in many diverse source."〔 The economists Potter van Loon, Van den Assem and Van Dolder analyzed a large database with hundreds of millions of online player-hand observations. They found that players whose earlier profitability was in the top (bottom) deciles performed better (worse) and were substantially more likely to end up in the top (bottom) performance deciles of the following time period. Regression analyses reinforced this evidence for persistence and predictability. Their simulations pointed out that skill dominates chance when performance is measured over 1,500 or more hands of play. At a rate of 60-80 hands per hour per table, this means that the game is effectively a game of skill after about 19-25 hours of play for people who play one table at a time, and after even less hours for players playing at multiple tables. Sean McCulloch, an associate professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ohio Wesleyan University, conducted a study on over 103 million hands played on ''PokerStars''. In his study, he discovered that over 75% of the hands were determined without a showdown. In other words, that the victor was determined not based upon the cards in their hand, but rather the way the players played their hands.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dominant Factor Test」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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