BY TOM SOMACH

The former co-owner of a private poker club in London, England was fined 10,000 pounds ($19,500) last week after a jury found him guilty of profiting from a game of chance, in violation of British gambling laws.

Derek Kelly, who ran the Gutshot poker club, told a British court he didn’t need a gambling license to collect money from players because the U.K.’s “Gaming Act 1968″ only covers games of chance like roulette or slot machines, not skill-based games such as poker or golf.

“It was your view that poker, and particularly Texas hold=B4em, was not a game of chance,=B4=B4 Justice Simon Wilkinson said=A0at the sentencing hearing for Kelly in London.

“In adhering to this view, you took a huge gamble.=B4=B4

Had the jury agreed with Kelly, more than a dozen private poker clubs in London would have been free to charge members, without regulation by the Gambling Commission until September, when the U.K.’s “Gambling Act 2005″ goes into effect.

Kelly was found guilty under an old gambling law in January for charging some of Gutshot’s 25,000 members cash to buy poker chips and enter the club’s poker tournaments.

He wasn’t sentenced for the crime until last week.

“I think the judge was reasonable in the end,=B4=B4Kelly said after the sentencing.

“Five hundred pounds ($975) a month I can just about afford.=B4=B4

Kelly was also conditionally discharged for two years and the 10,000 pounds will go toward covering a portion of the prosecution’s costs.

He said he will only appeal his conviction, but not the sentence.

Kelly now runs Gutshot’s online poker site, which is registered in Dublin, Ireland. The judge said he decided on a 10,000-pound penalty rather than prison, after considering Gutshot was a “well-managed club” that took “moderate” fees and catered to players with different skill levels.

He also noted Kelly’s “good character” and “cooperation.”

While this decision–that poker is a game of luck and not skill–was made in a British court of law, it could have far-ranging implications elsewhere.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the San Francisco-based lobbying group that just hired Al D’Amato as its head, wants online poker to be exempt from the U.S. government’s crackdown on online gambling.

The PPA’s main argument for the exemption is that unlike other casino games, like roulette or craps, poker is mostly skill, not luck.

A British court had said it disagrees.

Will an American court be next?

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)