The Time is Ripe

Poker is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity. Furthermore, its scope is beyond the highly visible signs of television programs, tournament attendance, and Internet sites. It extends to college dormitories and neighborhood tournaments. It extends even to people who are not poker players at all, but have friends who are now into the game. Poker is mainstream now!

Victor Hugo said, "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." We poker players have received the wrong end of the stick for a long time, as far as the law is concerned. If we play in a private game, we worry about getting raided, robbed, or stiffed. Public cardrooms have multiplied, but there still are not nearly enough to meet the demand. Internet poker is treated the same way as Internet casinos, despite the fact that they are fundamentally different. Our national and state laws do not reflect the feelings of most 21st-century Americans. We need to alter the law and make it reflect the will of the populace. Our time has come.

I am writing a series of columns on what needs to be done and how to accomplish it. In this column, I will look at what laws need to be changed. Here is a wish list:

A private poker game should be legal in every state. I am not talking about a raked game; that is "running a poker game as a business," which is illegal everywhere if you do not have a license. I am talking only about a group of people who get together and engage in what is known as "social gambling." In 1990, I presented a paper to an international conference on gambling titled, "A Comparative Study of State Laws on Social Gambling." My study was reprinted as a chapter in the 1991 book of William Eadington, put out by the University of Nevada Reno, titled, "Gambling and Public Policy." It is worth looking at the way my study shows that many states treat poker playing as criminal behavior. At that time, 27 of the 50 states considered the playing of poker anywhere other than in a licensed establishment to be illegal even if it were done in someone's home. It is true that this type of law is seldom enforced, but the time has come to get all of these laws off the books.

The state of Oregon has a model law regarding social gambling, defining it as "a game, other than a lottery, between players in a private home, where no house player, house bank, or house odds exist and there is no house income from the operation of the social game." Such a game in Oregon would also be legal in "a private business, private club, or place of public accommodation."

Any person who is a player in an illegal poker game should not be charged with a crime. The thing that makes the game illegal is that the sponsor of the game is running it as a business. Is the player supposed to investigate whether the amount the game's host takes out for food and drink is exorbitant enough to make the game illegal? I think not; this is unfair. It means that if the player is being overcharged, he is breaking the law!

A model law for the right attitude of a state toward a player is this Kentucky law: "'Player' means a person who engages in any form of gambling solely as a bettor, without receiving or becoming entitled to receive any profit there from other than personal gambling winnings, and without rendering any material assistance to the establishment, conduct, or operation of the particular gambling activity. … The status of a 'player' shall be a defense to any [gambling] prosecution."

A person who is arrested for running an illegal poker game should receive a penalty in proportion to the crime. The best way I can make my point is to simply quote the Oklahoma state law on this subject. None of the other states of the union are as draconian (although Saudi Arabia has an even harsher penalty):

"Except as provided in the Oklahoma Charity Games Act, every person who opens, or causes to be opened, or who conducts, whether for hire or not, or carries on either poker, roulette, craps or any banking or percentage, or any gambling game played with dice, cards or any device, for money, checks, credits, or any representatives of value, or who either as owner or employee, whether for hire or not, deals for those engaged in any such game, shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500), nor more than Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000), and by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a term of not less than one (1) year nor more than ten (10) years."

One to 10 years in jail for dealing poker in a home game that is raked? That is a pretty stiff sentence even if Martha Stewart redoes the entire penal system. Yes, it is better than having a hand chopped off …

Realize that my Oklahoma poker friends assure me that there are no fewer illegal private games in Oklahoma than elsewhere. Perhaps the unfairly harsh penalty makes law enforcement reluctant to enforce the law.

Any locality that wants to have a vote of the people to make poker rooms legal in that area should be free to do so. As things stand now, most states have a law against cardrooms that cannot be superseded by a local vote. This is wrong. To give the locals control over poker in their area, we need to either get the legislature to change the law or have the people change it by passing a proposition to that effect. In my opinion, poker is now sufficiently accepted by Americans to pass such a proposition in any state. If we organize sufficiently to gather enough signatures to get such a proposition on the ballot, the fight is practically won.

A business or group of businesses should be allowed to hold poker tournaments if no entry fee is charged. It is now becoming popular for certain businesses, such as taverns, to hold poker tournaments in which prizes are given away but no entry fee is required. According to the law everywhere, this is not gambling, because no fee for playing has been charged. It is a giveaway promotion. So, if it is not gambling, why would it be illegal? In my home state of Michigan, it is illegal because the Michigan Liquor Commission does not allow poker in bars. During the '70s, I owned a backgammon club in the Detroit area. At that time, dice were not allowed in bars. I went to the Michigan Liquor Commission and asked them to legalize backgammon in liquor establishments. They did. I would not be surprised to see history repeating itself with poker. A number of states already have "bar poker tournaments." Does yours? Why not?

As you can see, there is no shortage of work that needs to be done in reforming archaic laws involving poker. The time is ripe for making America a place where there is truly justice for all – even us poker players!

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. E-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get Robert's Rules of Poker for free. Ciaffone is the cardroom director for ChecknRaisePoker.com.