In the evenings, Don Signore used to go to the local bar to play a few hands of poker. It was the kind of poker gathering where fathers sometimes brought their young daughters, and nobody played for money.

The night of cards with his new friends was a perfect distraction after his wife died two years ago, said Signore, who runs a Chicago catering business. “They take it very seriously. It’s about learning the game, it’s about becoming better,” he said.

But this month, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission shut down Signore’s league because under state law, an establishment with a liquor license couldn’t host poker, which the agency considered to be a game of chance and therefore illegal, even though Signore said his group didn’t play for money.

His frustration was enough that Signore came to Washington for this week’s Poker Players Alliance’s “fly-in” on Capitol Hill, where other poker aficionados lobbied lawmakers to ease federal restrictions on online poker playing.

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Recovered from the Poker Players Alliance archive index. This is the archived item as preserved.