Anti-poker enforcement in NC post Joker Club v. Hardin - one example

[Zetack]

This may be a bit off-topic, but there was some lengthy discussion in this forum about the recent NC Court of Appeals case (Joker Club, LLC v. Hardin) which came down on the side of poker being a game of chance and thus illegal under NC’s anti-gambling statute, and I thought folks might be interested in an example of enforcement of the statute after that opinion.

I play from time to time in a "home" game that is closer to an underground card room than a home game. That it doesn’t run everyday, and different nights are run by different folks, and that only a few games/tables are spread is what keeps it from being a full fledged underground cardroom. But they provide free food, drinks, and dedicated dealers.

Its biggest night was Fridays, when they ran a 60 dollar buy-in tourney with one re-buy or add-on that regularly attracted sixty plus players. As soon as a table opened up from the tourney they would spread a 1/2 NL cash game. By about 2 am there were usually three and a half full tables of cash going. By the time I would pack in it at about 7 am there were typically nine players still going and it wasn't unusual to have well over 4 thousand on the one table.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, this game got busted. Apparently one of the players got busted for something and turned the cops on to it, and they got an undercover officer into the game. One Friday, when I forunately wasn’t was not there, they busted the game, and charged all the players with misdemeanor gambling.

They held off on charging the organizers, apparently to see the results of the prosecution of the players, and the speculation was that the organizers were going to get charged with a Felony. Quite frankly, I don’t see any felony the organizers could be charged with, unless they were hit with NC’s version of RICO for operating a continuing criminal enterprise. That’s not a commonly used statute in NC, so I’m at a bit of a loss as to why they weren’t charged.

The cases for the players got continued a number of times, I was told because they were waiting on the appeal of Joker Club to the NC Supreme Court. Although, as far as I know, the case has not gone to the Supreme Court, however, many of the cases have now been disposed of.

Naturally some or all of the cases were set on the same day. One unrepresented player went first and pled guilty and got a $120 fine. Although, in my experience, it would be unusual not to have some sort of suspended sentence along with that for a class 2 misdemeanor, my source didn’t think he received any other punishment than the fine.

My source, a part time bookie, and a little more savvy about these type of things, had hired a lawyer along with 3 or 4 of the other players. The lawyer found out that for some reason the investigating officer did not seem particularly hot for the case,. Although this seems odd to me, perhaps because it was an ALE officer, and their focus is on regulating bars and drugs enforcement. In any case, the lawyer and the DA conferred, the DA conferred with the officer, and then the DA dismissed all the cases against my source and the other players who hired a lawyer.

The remaining folks on the docket that day, none of whom had lawyers got an agreement to do 12 hours of community service and will have their cases dismissed.

None of the confiscated money is being returned.

It seems pretty clear that they had pretty good evidence, so I don’t think that played much of a role.

I don’t know that this is particularly educational since there is no precedential value to this, and every judicial district in NC is separate and distinct so in other jurisdictions the DA may decide to screw folks to the wall, but I thought this was interesting, particularly in light of the fact that this was a much more serious operation than your typical home game.

[sevencard2003]

u didnt state in here if the game was taking a rake or not.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
u didnt state in here if the game was taking a rake or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought that was pretty well implied by the "more like an underground card room" and that they provided free food and drinks. Yes it was raked.

I'm not sure if the tourney vig was $5 or $10 bucks, but they took it off both the buy in and add-on.

The rake in the cash game was 10% capped at 9 dollars.

Legally, it makes no difference in NC whether a game is raked or not, although I suppose it might influence a prosecutor's zeal, or lack thereof.

--Zetack