I used to help non-profits run poker tournaments and shied away from it when the Attorney General's office put out their advisory since it made them more difficult to run. Recently non-profits have been contacting me again to help them out so I am looking for a way to run these legally. I think setting up a location on the south shore with poker, blackjack, roulette, and slot machines would do extremely well and by having automatic machines that would take away the previous problem of not being able to be on the premises during the event and the charity running the games. Any experts out there that can provide legal advise on how to get this done properly?
Poker Players Alliance Forums » State - MA
Charity Poker
(3 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Greetings Vinny;
There are several organizations (i.e, Lion's Club, Elk's Club, etc...) that run charitable poker tournaments and are able to circumvent the AG's Advisory by using gift cards as prizes instead of ouright cash. I am uncertain as to the legality of this, but as I said, these organizations have been running these tournaments about every other month and have had NO incidents involving law enforcement.
As far as slot machines, roulette, blackjack, etc..., I honestly think you're asking for trouble there. While MA residents do get the priviledge of having some groups offer a "Casino Night", I believe these organizations do not offer cash prizes (I am again uncertain as to the legality there because my area is strictly poker). In my honest opinion, I feel you're truly biting off way more than you can chew by attempting to organize a charity event outside the confines of poker only because poker tournaments don't seem to attract the political outcry that a full charity casino might attract. Just my suggestion.
Good Luck!
All In,
Randy C~
MA Director
Poker Players AlliancePosted 1 year ago # -
Thanks for the input Randy. I wish there wasn't such a gray area here. My argument is that if you follow the law to a T, there is no way for you to run a charity poker event and be successful. If I choose to ignore some items like running an event for more than 5 hours, a charity running more than the 3 allowed events per year, hiring a game operation group to run the event and deal, and allowing re-buys that don't figure in the payouts why if someone else is not wearing the required name tags, not posting house rules at every table, not posting a sign saying tipping is not allowed, holding sit and go's and basing their payouts on the number of players would they believe they are in compliance with the law and I would not be? I am supposed to be speaking with Patrick Fleming soon to get more advice from a legal perspective.
I believe poker is a game of skill and I should just open a poker room. How is a arcade game like coin pushers and picking a color that a ball spun around will finish in considered amusement and skill games and poker still a game of chance. I used to play a home game, I forget the name, where you get 3 cards in hold'em and decide which one to throw away before the flop that involves skill and I can run a table of that and that would be alright? I guess it is time to test the skill versus chance laws for poker. Anyone want to join my fight?
Posted 1 year ago #
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