They give out gold bracelets for poker excellence, so why not gold medals?

If poker were part of the Olympics, they would.

Poker an Olympic sport?

Some people think it should be.

Waddington’s, a playing card manufacturer in London, England, site of the 2012 Olympics, has taken a poll of 1,000 Britons and asked them: Should poker be a part of the next Olympics?

Amazingly, 36% of the respondents–about 360 out of 1,000–said yes, poker should be in the Olympics.

Don’t expect that to happen any time soon, however.

Although the debate over whether poker is predominantly skill or luck continues, any debate over whether poker is a game or a sport is non-existent.

It’s a game.

Any activity you can do while sitting down and drinking beer is always a game, never a sport.

Besides getting some publicity for itself–who had ever heard of Waddington’s before–the poll suggests another interesting question.

What if poker had been part of this year’s Olympics in Beijing?

Would they have played Chinese poker?

(E-mail Tom Somach at [email protected].)