Re: Ridiculous rake - Starting a legal poker game
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But what about a nonprofit association? This is my idea. By definition, a nonprofit association makes no profit. There are many forms it might take. It does not have to be tax exempt or 501c3.
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"Profit" and "economic benefit" are not the same. Nonprofit organizations receive economic benefit, unless for some reason it is an organization devoted solely to flushing money down the commode.
The structure you propose involves the organization receiving economic benefit directly from poker buyins.
It doesn't matter that the money is used to pay expenses or is refunded to contributors.
IANAL of course, but I'd bet a lot of money the words "economic benefit" were carefully chosen instead of "profit" in Texas law.
Maybe you could try to pull it off if you:
1> Did not charge any fees and relied solely on charitable donations to pay the expenses.
2> Allowed anyone to play whether they donated or not.
But even then I'd still bet you'd get busted and found guilty. This IS Texas you're talking about after all.
Hopefully in 2009 the Legislature will pass legalized poker.
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