Events rising to become an Olympic Sport is small achievement since the authorities need to be convinced that the activity is skill-based. The Olympic organisation holds a lot of credibility and only the best of the best will appear. The GAISF committee are the people who make this decision and take this into account and it is one of their primary objectives that they look to be fulfilled. If you ask the experts in poker, they will tell you that it is at least partially skill based. Even if a bad hand is received then the behaviours around this can still determine if you win or lose. There is a lot of variation in poker and the cards the players are completely random making the outcome somewhat interesting, unlike other activities such as bingo games where the outcomes are purely random.
Other Contenders
There are a number of other sports at the moment who are determined to become Olympic sports and have been having this battle for some time. Some of these include arm-wrestling, foosball and dodgeball. All these sports (along with poker) have been given the status of “observer” by GAISF which the first step in this journey is, potentially. The GAISF are responsible for making these decisions and introducing some new sports to the Olympics (or recommending that others are disbanded). [Read more…]