Poker Laws Confuse Me

I will be the first person to admit that I’m not exactly a “legally minded” person. I’m not saying I break the law a lot – I barely even speed. No, what I’m saying is that I don’t exactly pay attention to new laws, understand most laws, or am able to argue why some laws are completely ridiculous or not.

One particular law that I don’t understand is in regards to Texas Hold’em. Many cities, counties, and states have varying degrees of laws in regards to poker and gambling. Many, of which, say that it’s “not allowed”. Or it is allowed if: 1) you don’t pay into it and 2) you don’t receive anything in return.

As I’ve mentioned before, lots of places and organizations have gotten around this by not accepting a “buy-in” but by charging to “rent a chair”. However, I have a problem with this. While it does fall in the guidelines of the gambling laws (barely), they can’t force anybody to rent a chair. So people are competing for a pot that they never paid into. While a majority of people seem to realize the poor sportsmanship of this, there seems to be an increase of players who choose to stand or squat at the table in an attempt to walk away, cash in hand, with never shelling any out. Although, I do have to mention that when players meet these squatters at the table, a group effort begins to force them out – and seem to be successful.

More and more people have been using hold’em tournaments in an effort to gain funds for various organizations, as well. How these tournaments can be “legal” are beyond me. People are contributing to play, and practically everybody walks away with a prize of some sort. While they may not be walking away with cash in hand, they are still coming away, potentially, with a profit, and that’s where the law starts to confuse me.

I’m not a paralegal and will certainly never be a lawyer, so I’m not going to try and understand. Until the law objects, I’m saying, “Game on.”