BY TOM SOMACH

There used to be a time when gamblers were lumped in with pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers as the dregs of society, existing on the fringe of humanity, scorned by most and loved by few.

And the very idea of inviting a professional gambler–a poker player, no less–to speak at America’s most prestigious institute of higher learning, was unthinkable.

No longer.

Perhaps it was even fitting that a poker pro nicknamed “The Professor” would become the first professional gambler to be invited to speak at Harvard University.

That’s what happened Monday night when top poker pro Howard “The Professor” Lederer, who’s won two World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelets and nearly $3 million in poker tournament earnings, lectured before an enthralled audience at the Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

According to a report in the Harvard Crimson, the Harvard University student newspaper which also serves as the daily newspaper for suburban Cambridge, Lederer was joined at the podium by fellow poker pro Crandell Addington and the pair, unsurprisingly, called for poker to be legalized across the U.S. and online.

“Poker is a microcosm of life,” Lederer told the future lawyers and their professors. “Good players make their own luck.

“Poker is a game that should be treated differently on the Internet,” he continued. “It deserves separate status.”

Harvard law prof Charles Nesson, who moderated the discussion, at one point asked “The Professor” whether he thinks poker is a game of luck or skill.

Lederer, the Crimson reported, responded by saying while luck is involved in many hands of poker, he was still willing to bet that skill is the main factor in deciding who wins or loses in the long run.

“I can’t really think of a game that’s played among a large group of people that doesn’t involve skill,” Lederer, perhaps best known for being the brother of top female poker pro Annie Duke, said.

“People don’t get together and flip coins.”

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