Victorian Poker Laws

In a previous column, I lamented the fact that many state laws on gambling (which are the laws that affect poker-playing) stem from a bygone era that has no relation to the modern world. A lot of them are from the time when Victoria was the Queen of England – thus, the English word "Victorian," meaning prudish values on sex, drinking, gambling, and other activities that were written into law. In this column, I will give you a smattering of state laws that are so out of touch that some will give you a good laugh, while others may make you want to cry.



I am acquainted with state laws on poker and gambling, and I did a serious academic project on the subject in 1990 for an international gaming conference that was titled, "A Comparative Study of State Laws on Social Gambling." You can find a copy of this study on my website. I am not a lawyer, but I do know how to do legal research.



You may think that all players who break the law in the same manner should be treated alike. That's not so in my home state of Michigan. It is a bigger crime to win at poker than lose at poker in my state! If you win, you can be jailed for a year, but if you lose, you can only get fined.



Here are the two relevant Michigan laws:



750.314; Winning at gambling
"Any person who by playing at cards, dice, or any other game, or by betting or putting up money on cards, or by any other means or device in the nature of betting on cards, or betting of any kind, wins or obtains any sum of money or any goods, or any article of value whatever, is guilty of a misdemeanor if the money, goods, or articles so won or obtained are of the value of not more than $50.00. If the money, goods, or articles so won or obtained are of the value of more than $50.00, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $1,000.00."



750.315; Losing at gambling

"Any person who shall lose any sum of money, or any goods, article or thing of value, by playing or betting on cards, dice or by any other device in the nature of such playing or betting, and shall pay or deliver the same or any part thereof to the winner, and shall not, within 3 months after such loss, without covin or collusion, prosecute with effect for such money or goods, the winner to whom such money or goods shall have been so paid or delivered, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding three times the value of such money or goods. Such loser may sue for and recover such money in an action for money had and received to the use of the plaintiff; and such goods, article or valuable thing in an action of replevin, or the value thereof in an action on the case."



Do you think you are fairly knowledgeable about gambling games? Take a look at this Mississippi law and see how many of the prohibited games you have ever heard of.



97-33-9. Gambling; keeping, exhibiting, etc. games or gaming tables; exceptions

"If any person shall be guilty of keeping or exhibiting any game or gaming table commonly called A.B.C. or E.O. roulette or rowley-powley, or rouge et noir, roredo, keno, monte, or any faro-bank, or other game, gaming table, or bank of the same or like kind or any other kind or description under any other name whatever … "



The toughest state in the nation on gamblers (according to the way the state law reads) is Oklahoma, where you can in theory go to jail for 10 years for dealing in an illegal poker game. Here is this Draconian law:



21-941; Gambling-Conducting-Penalty-Felony
"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 ($500.00), nor more than Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00), and by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a term of not less than one (1) year nor more than ten (10) years."



I know a lot of poker players from Oklahoma, and a lot of places to play the game in that state that are probably not allowed, according to the law. My opinion is, having an excessively harsh penalty for getting caught makes law enforcement more reluctant to enforce the law, so the law does the opposite of what it was intended to do.



Some laws are laughable because the sums of money involved with fines, which were possibly fairly large amounts according to the days when the laws were written (at least a couple of centuries ago), are extremely low.



Here is a Vermont law that I know existed 15 years ago when I did my study (I am not sure if it is still on the books).



2132 – Gambling.
"A person who plays at cards, dice, tables, billiards or other game for money or other valuable thing shall be fined not more than $5.00."



Here is a Mississippi law:

97-33-49. Raffles
"Except as otherwise provided in Section 97-33-51, if any person, in order to raise money for himself or another, shall publicly or privately put up or in any way offer any prize or thing to be raffled or played for, he shall, on conviction, be fined not more than Twenty Dollars ($20.00)."



Some of the terms used in these gambling laws are archaic, no longer having the same meaning nowadays. For example, here is a state that uses the term "outhouse" when prohibiting gambling activity.



61-10-8 – Gaming at Outhouse of Hotel
"Penalty. If the keeper of a hotel or tavern let or hire to another person any outhouse or other place, … with intent that unlawful gaming be permitted thereat, he shall suffer the same punishment and incur the same forfeiture as if such unlawful gaming were permitted at his own principal house."



Note that I didn't mention the name of the state that specifically says you cannot gamble in an outhouse. I thought I would let you guess.



You probably guessed right; the state is West Virginia.



If you guessed Mississippi, take partial credit, as there is a Mississippi law that starts out as follows:



97-33-15. Gambling; hotel, tavern and boarding-house keepers to inform on gamblers

"If any guest or other person shall play at any game, bank, or table contrary to law, in a tavern, hotel, or boarding-house, or any outhouse …"



I have done a lot of gambling in my lifetime, but I have never done so in an outhouse.



Naturally, I hope that my column has entertained you, but I admit to having an ulterior motive: dramatizing the fact that many of our state laws on gambling are extremely old, and inappropriate for today's America. Nowadays, nearly every state has a state-run lottery, nearly every city has illegal poker games, and nearly every household has access to Internet gambling if the resident wishes to indulge. It is time to change some of our gambling laws.



Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker (available on this website), Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free. Ciaffone is the Cardroom Director for ChecknRaisePoker.com.