Punishment For Underground Poker Room In Colorado?

[The Big Sleazy]

How much trouble can you get in for running 1-3 tables from your house or somewhere else? hypothetically speaking of course, i'm not even in colorado.

[Grasshopp3r]

For Colorado, there are gambling misdemeanors and felonies for running a poker room. There is a social gambling exemption, which covers most home games. You need to talk to an attorney if you have been busted.

[The Big Sleazy]

nothing yet just wondering how big the risk would be to someone thinking of starting a game.

[Grasshopp3r]

The social exemption covers most games that you could put together. Once you start raking the game, you start to run into risk. If you are concerned, you should seek out legal advice. The police have raided all of the larger games in town.

[The Big Sleazy]

have any info on the cases or how much trouble they got in? also what stakes were the guys playing?

[Bilgefisher]

CBI has made several busts in the last few years. Be wary.

[idrinkcoors]

[ QUOTE ]
CBI has made several busts in the last few years. Be wary.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. Social games are okay. Take a rake or entry fee, and there is potential problems.

[The Big Sleazy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
CBI has made several busts in the last few years. Be wary.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. Social games are okay. Take a rake or entry fee, and there is potential problems.

[/ QUOTE ]i've played lots of homegames with no worries, i'm talking 1-2 nl with a small rake. is there any loopholes in the rake system, like a forced tip or something.

[Grasshopp3r]

There are no loopholes. There was a Colorado supreme court case where the plaintiff argued that their "social dues" were just collected from each pot (aka rake). That argument did not prevail.

On another topic, I am running a game 8/4. Here is the response thread.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...ue#Post11196572 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=home&Number=11196572&Sear chpage=1&Main=11171341&Words=+Grasshopp3r&topic=&S earch=true#Post11196572)

[emerson]

[ QUOTE ]
nothing yet just wondering how big the risk would be to someone thinking of starting a game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to find out who the correct person to bribe is and make sure that he is paid in a timely fashion.

[JimmytheHat19]

I live in Colorado and in February the CBI and a SWAT team came and busted our game. It was a club of sorts in Pueblo with about 50 players. No rake was being dropped and it was a $50 buy-in tourney. We had a couple of elderly players there and it was a sad sight to see them being frisked. It was quite ridiculous. Anyway, all players received a ticket for illegal gambling while the dealers received a class 2 misdeamor for "encouraging players to gamble illegally". I got off with a $200 donation and about $50 in court costs. There was no rake being dropped but there was a $15 monthly membership fee to play there, which went towards food and upkeep of the building as the owner was a poker enthusiast and let us play there for free. Total joke. There are no more games around here anymore. I have to drive to lame Cripple Creek to play $5 limit hold'em if I wanna play. If you are going to have a home game, make sure that you arent charging anyone to play and that you ARENT dropping a rake. Also, the gaming commision told me that everyone has to know everyone... thats what makes it a "social home game". It is okay to play for money as long as you abide by those rules.

[Grasshopp3r]

There are some HUGE games going on at the country clubs, but they abide by the social gaming exemptions and they are left alone.

[tvta]

the people running my local games are very much breaking the law and one got busted. he(the house) received some sort of misdemeanor and still runs a game from a different location. the only thing that was damaged was his business. im guessing the other game owners dont mind so much bc their business picked up.

[Grasshopp3r]

There was a game in Palmer Lake that was busted a while ago, but the DA dropped all charges when most of the players asserted the social exemption defense. You were screwed for not asserting that defense.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/1/colorado-poker-dodge-charges.htm

[Don\\\'t Do It!]

so op would be facing at worst a misdeminor?

[Don\\\'t Do It!]

[ QUOTE ]
I live in Colorado and in February the CBI and a SWAT team came and busted our game. It was a club of sorts in Pueblo with about 50 players. No rake was being dropped and it was a $50 buy-in tourney. We had a couple of elderly players there and it was a sad sight to see them being frisked. It was quite ridiculous. Anyway, all players received a ticket for illegal gambling while the dealers received a class 2 misdeamor for "encouraging players to gamble illegally". I got off with a $200 donation and about $50 in court costs. There was no rake being dropped but there was a $15 monthly membership fee to play there, which went towards food and upkeep of the building as the owner was a poker enthusiast and let us play there for free. Total joke. There are no more games around here anymore. I have to drive to lame Cripple Creek to play $5 limit hold'em if I wanna play. If you are going to have a home game, make sure that you arent charging anyone to play and that you ARENT dropping a rake. Also, the gaming commision told me that everyone has to know everyone... thats what makes it a "social home game". It is okay to play for money as long as you abide by those rules.

[/ QUOTE ]so what happened to the guy who ran the game?

[callmedonnie]

I lived in Boulder for a few years and used to play at a place in Denver. It was busted, I wasn't there. I never played cash there, from everything I heard the rake was ridiculous. The tournaments were fine, no monthly fee, just a fee of the entry. Here are two articles about the bust.

I remember reading this (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4956597,00.html) in the paper right after it happened. This (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5006969,00.html) has considerably more detail. I never went back, and wasn't particularly friendly with anyone that was there at the time. I did get a call from one of the dealers a week or so after letting me know they were back up and running though.

[Emperor]

[ QUOTE ]
There are some HUGE games going on at the country clubs, but they abide by the social gaming exemptions and they are left alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

The country clubs don't charge a membership fee?

[The Big Sleazy]

so does anybody know what happened to these club opperators?

[Grasshopp3r]

Country clubs are not charging membership fees for poker. The games are just run there. They are why the "social exemption" was enacted.

There are long running games at the Denver Press Club, the Denver Athletic Club and the Inverness golf club, to name a few.

[The Big Sleazy]

ttt for info on the club starters