Washington State Shuts Down Penny-Ante Card Game At Senior CenterHigh-Stakes Gambling Ring Garnered Attention Of Gambling Commission |
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The public must now be safer.
The state of Washington busted a 25-year-old penny-ante pinochle game at a senior center in the city of Snohomish, King 5 News reported Tuesday evening.
About five years ago, the city passed an ordinance to keep for-profit card rooms from opening there, and apparently thanks to some murky language in the rule the senior center game was included under its scope.
It took a long time before state gambling officials caught on to the game, but eventually they did, and it was shut down, much to the dismay of its elderly participants, late last year. Crazy, right?
“If you gave them an IQ test, the needle wouldn’t move,” one of the players said of state officials. Another one added: “We should turn the card rooms into grow rooms for marijuana. Then we would be legal and make some money. Maybe we could have free lunch!”
What’s also crazy is that apparently someone snitched on this game.
Thanks to the embarrassing bust of the penny-ante game, Snohomish officials reportedly are trying to change the rule to allow the old-timers to continue. Right now, the games have resumed, but they will have to stop again in three months if a new law isn’t adopted.
Snohomish, population around 9,000, is located in the northwest part of Washington.
The rule in the state isn’t too surprising, however, when you consider that you could go to jail simply for playing online poker in Washington. Though, no one ever has.