Deaf Poker Player @ Casino...

[ChicagoTroy]

FYI, using American Sign Language at the table would be a violation of the English-only rule.

[bav]

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FYI, using American Sign Language at the table would be a violation of the English-only rule.

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Very true. Which is why everyone has suggested not doing this during hands unless it is necessary. But preventing someone from using ASL to clarify what's going on or explain things likely runs afoul of ADA. Federal law trumps casino rules.

If three deaf people all sat at the same table and started wildly signing during hands, it'd be a problem. It's not clear the casino can legally stop them because of ADA, but it is certainly clear the rest of the players don't have to play with 'em.

[LuckyTxGuy]

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FYI, using American Sign Language at the table would be a violation of the English-only rule.

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Very true. Which is why everyone has suggested not doing this during hands unless it is necessary. But preventing someone from using ASL to clarify what's going on or explain things likely runs afoul of ADA. Federal law trumps casino rules.


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Good post.

Take your buddy and have a great time. I hope ya'll clean up at the tables.

[juanez]

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I'll just add that I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the Americans with Disabilities Act that says "except for casinos."

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Not to hijack the thread, but this reminded me a woman who used to come into another room I was working at. She was in a wheelchair, obese, had a "therapy" dog (a golden retriever who was cool as hell), and was just feeble in so many ways (I'm not making fun of her here). She would usually play tournaments. While incredibly annoying as a person, she was not a real hassle or anything and we treated her with respect and did what we could do for her to make her comfortable.

She played there for months without incident when she decided one day that she couldn't reach the cards or make bets easily from certain positions on the table....she only wanted the 5 or 6 seat.

Well, CO Poker Regs say that tourney players choose their seats randomly at the beginning of the tourney and when a table breaks during a tourney, and that they will go where they are needed if tables get unbalanced.

She protested one day when her tourney table got short and broke and said that she couldn't reach the cards or make bets because she couldn't toss the chips in far enough from the seat that she drew, etc. Again, this is after playing for months with no issues, but who knows maybe her condition worsened. I tell her "I'm sorry you will need to play in that seat, but I can have someone sit with you to handle your chips, cards, etc."

She freaks out and starts screaming about the ADA and a lawsuit. The MOD gets called and he shows her the part about "reasonable accommodations" for disabled persons from some part the ADA. She threatened to sue, of course, and left. Her stack was blinded off.

Nothing ever came of it. She was back a week or so later and we never had another issue. Sorry, kinda rambling there.

As to the OP: as far as deaf players go, we’ve had many deaf folks play and never had an issue. We had a group of about 20 deaf guys come in for a private tourney and they were just fine with the action, etc. Bring your friend with you and have a good time. Letting the floor know is a good idea though, just so he can inform the dealers so they don’t get frustrated or whatever if the deaf person didn’t hear something the dealer said. If the dealers know there should be no problems.

[MortalWombat]

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A childhood friend of mine is deaf and just found out he has been playing online poker.

[/ QUOTE ]Why, does he have short term memory problems as well?

[tom10167]

I've had a few deaf people at my table's before. Best advice I can give is don't have other people say check, use the table tap.

[TomBrooks]

Once I sat next to a girl on a 3 hour plane flight and talked to her for most of that time. Towards the end of the flight, for some reason I can't remember, she revealed to me that she was deaf. We didn't play poker though, so I don't know how she would have handled that.

[Matt Williams]

I'm 95% deaf. I don't think he will have any problems. You rely on visual cues 100% of the time, so if he is following the action, he will be fine.

[Fish R Friends]

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FYI, using American Sign Language at the table would be a violation of the English-only rule.

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Very true. Which is why everyone has suggested not doing this during hands unless it is necessary. But preventing someone from using ASL to clarify what's going on or explain things likely runs afoul of ADA. Federal law trumps casino rules.

If three deaf people all sat at the same table and started wildly signing during hands, it'd be a problem. It's not clear the casino can legally stop them because of ADA, but it is certainly clear the rest of the players don't have to play with 'em.

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Don't casinos have the right to refuse service? Card counting is not illegal but they can still ask you to leave if you're a counter. The casino could claim that the deaf people would not stop signing during the hand which gave them an unfair advantage.

Before people jump on me for suggesting that is could be an unfair advantage, let me relate this to you. Yes, I've played with deaf people before who were signing at the table - no the floors and other were too chicken sh.it to even say "English only at the table."

I caught them signing their cards in 1/2NLHE. Over the next three hours I laid down two monsters face up and they never caught on as I'm talking away. After snapping each of them at least once, I'm stacking four racks. I look to the one who I just cleaned out as he's buying in again and sign "have a nice day. good luck". I walk out laughing as the table looks at me like "WTF"?!? [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Unfortunately, I haven't seen them since.

[AKQJ10]

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Don't casinos have the right to refuse service?

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Not to a legally protected class. Casinos could not, for example, refuse service based on race.

IANAL, etc., but I believe the ADA would make similar arrangements for disabilities. It would probably come down to the question of whether allowing ASL at the table is a reasonable accomodation or not. I can see why basic explanations of what's going on would probably be legally protected; table chatter might not be.

Again, I have a tendency to talk out of my posterior often, ESPECIALLY with legal issues that I only vaguely understand. People who really know this stuff are encouraged to set me straight.