Police?

urnotstr8 · #1 02-20-2006, 10:30 PM

I know it is illegal to play poker for money, but have any of you gotten your home game busted by cops? If so what happened?
I play in MD and WV

Lottery Larry · #2 02-20-2006, 11:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I know it is illegal to play poker for money

I play in MD and WV

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not true all around. It may be true in MD and WV, but it's not illegal in PA nor in many states, from what I've heard.

Now, running an underground card room for profit? That's illegal pretty much everywhere.

Mahriq · #3 02-20-2006, 11:47 PM

My understanding of Ohio law is that whether a home game is legal or not boils down to whether there is a charge to play. You charge (rake, entry fee), it is illegal. If all money collected is paid out to the participants as prizes/cash-outs, it is legal.

EasilyFound · #4 02-20-2006, 11:50 PM

Home games are perfectly legal in NY, so long as the house does not take a rake. Even then, it is not illegal to be a mere player in a game in which someone else takes a rake.

flatline · #5 02-21-2006, 01:51 AM

There are plenty of stories about underground cardrooms being busted. Usually they charge the operators, conficate the money, and sometimes charge players with a misdemeanor. Usually the game has gotten really big, well known, loud/annoying to neighbors, or has other illegal activity going along with it. It is very rare for your normal home game to get busted; so rare it isn't really worth worrying about.

Snarf · #6 02-21-2006, 03:30 AM

A thread in "legistlation" about home games

http://www.gambling-law-us.com/
]Place to research home game laws in your state (linked in the thread)[/url]

MadTiger · #7 02-21-2006, 08:07 AM

Make sure you don't rake, or do any lame thing disguising a rake.

MTUCache · #8 02-21-2006, 09:48 AM

As everyone said, no rake and you should be good... then it's no different than the millions of Superbowl bets and NCAA Brackets that everybody does.

As for our home game... it's about half cops anyway, so we don't have to worry about being busted up, let alone getting robbed. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

We've also got a couple firefighters, and one SWAT member. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

wmonfor · #9 02-21-2006, 02:32 PM

In MI, it is legal if you have no rake and if you are all over 21.

Zetack · #10 02-22-2006, 10:48 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I know it is illegal to play poker for money, but have any of you gotten your home game busted by cops? If so what happened?
I play in MD and WV

[/ QUOTE ]

It is illegal in my State.

However the only bust I've heard about recently the sherrif said that because they were posting flyers about the game they thought it was creating a dangerous situation where the game might be robbed.

I also know some guys who run free bar tournaments. They got busted but the DA ended up dismissing the charges since our statute is actually an anti-gambling statute and with no entry fee or prize pool at all it was hard to argue that there was gambling going on.

However the DA for that particular county (these guys run tourney all over the state) said he'd have em re-arrested if they continued to run tourneys. Also, the Alchohol enforcement guys for a different county said they'd pull the liquor licenses of any bars hosting the free tourneys.

So at this point, the poker tourney company has filed a lawsuit against that DA, the State Attorney General, Director of the State Alchohol Law Enforcement, one of the County ABC law enforcement Chiefs, and the State itself. That suit was filed in June, 2005, I don't know what the status is now.

So, yes busts are possible, but I haven't heard of any against a typical home game.