An archaic statute

In the fall of 2005, there was a police raid made on a group of people who were playing poker in an apartment-complex recreation room near Greenville, South Carolina. After several discussions with some of the busted players and their lawyer, I decided to do some legal research, based on the way the state law there governing poker is worded. Based on that research, I wrote a series of three columns in Card Player, stating that the law under which the players were charged was unconstitutional.

(more…)

transcript:

In September of 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed. Poker players strongly opposed it because the law made it illegal for banks, credit card companies, and other payment processing companies to allow transactions to illegal online gambling sites. The law didn’t specify that online poker was illegal, but instead left it as a grey area and backed it up with threats that were sufficiently severe so that these financial institutions have done whatever is necessary to avoid possible violations.

(more…)

excerpt:

The largest poker tournament in Florida history comes to Broward County this weekend, a tribute to the games popularity and to the near monopoly power of the Seminole Tribes casino empire.

As many as 210 players will pay $3,000 apiece to enter the three-day event, which begins Friday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The entry fee and potential first prize of more than $125,000 — exact figures depend on the final player count — dwarfs what is allowed by state law at Browards racetrack casinos and is made possible by the recent gaming compact between the tribe and Gov. Charlie Crist.

Seminoles big-money poker tourney angers racetracks — – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

excerpt:

ORANGE LAKE – More than 50 people – with no official public notice – were lined up for this week’s opening of the new card room at Ocala Poker & Jai Alai, newly renamed to add its new emphasis on poker.

Within an hour, 10 tables were full of eight to 10 players each. The players, almost all of them men of various ages, were considering their cards, watching other players’ faces, chatting about the game, bantering about past games, clicking poker chips together – on a weekday afternoon.

(more…)

excerpt:
When Grant Erwin started his poker club in 1962, there was no such thing as a personal computer, an online accounting tool or an Excel worksheet. The eight or nine men who met monthly around kitchen tables in Seattle and Bellevue to play low-stakes poker kept track of their winnings with tokens in old baby-food jars, labeled with their names.
(more…)

excerpt:
Police said they shut down a high-stakes gambling operation based in a North Texas home on Friday.

A SWAT team raided the house off Highway 10 on Friday night. Hurst police said they found two dozen people inside the home, which had tables, dealers and even a banker, and was set up to look like Las Vegas.
(more…)

excerpt:
While it is unlikely that any action will be taken this year to enforce the UIGEA through regulation, congressional representatives continue to endorse HR 5767, a bill that orders the Federal Reserve and the Dept. of the Treasury to cease trying to implement any rules that would govern the online gambling ban law.
(more…)

excerpt:
After the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was pushed through Congress in 2006, the industry has been turned upside down. One area that the U.S. has found itself in hot water is the international arena. The country has already given concessions to Antigua and the European Union over money lost from outlawing foreign internet gambling operators within its borders. In the background, horse racing, fantasy sports, and state lotteries rein supreme online, remaining legal, while internet gambling suffers. In February, Ed Brayton, a freelance writer, requested the details of settlements that the U.S. had entered into. His request was denied, prompting Brayton file suit against the U.S. Trade Representative last week.
(more…)

excerpt:
Two people arrested at an illegal poker game in San Mateo last fall — one man for allegedly hosting the illicit card tournaments and a woman for reportedly bringing her teenage son to play — pleaded no contest to their respective misdemeanor charges rather than gamble on trial.
(more…)

Poker players in Denmark received encouraging news when the Danish Supreme Court recently agreed to hear arguments against a late 2007 law banning poker tournaments held in private clubs.
(more…)