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Is Your Home Game Legal?
by: Anthony Cabot
So, you are like millions of Americans who occasionally
get together for a poker game at one of the gang’s
house. Typically, the night is about bravado and beer,
rather than serious poker play. Maybe you  only
play quarter games. You can usually walk away with pocket
money for the week. After all, you know a little about
the game. But, how much do you know about the law? What
if, on one fateful night, your friend’s neighbor,
still smarting because your friend’s barbeques
last too late in the evening for his tastes, peers through
the window and spots the cards and chips on the table.
He calls the man in blue. What now?
If you happen to live in St. Louis, you may be surprised
when the police cuff you and take you down to the station.
This is because in Missouri, only poker games specifically
sanctioned by the Missouri Gaming Commission are legal.
In the United States, law enforcement authority over
poker is primarily the responsibility of state and local
officials. The laws that they enforce are typically
either state laws or city ordinances. Therefore, the
legality of home poker games can vary between states
and even between cities and towns in the same state.
Unfortunately, Missouri does not stand alone. In Utah,
all forms of gambling are unlawful, with no exceptions
for licensed facilities or home games. Utah has a fairly
common definition of gambling:
“Gambling” means risking anything of
value for a return, or risking anything of value upon
the outcome of a contest, game, gaming scheme, or gaming
device when the return or outcome is based upon an element
of chance and is in accord with an agreement or understanding
that someone will receive something of value in the
event of a certain outcome.
This would include a home poker game. The archaic laws
of the state of Missouri and Utah are still common.
Indiana, New Jersey and New York also fall within this
category. Many states have some exemption for home poker
games. But, the exemption can vary greatly between states,
so you need to be careful. Michigan has a typical exemption
for home games. Under 432.202 of the Michigan Gaming
Control And Revenue Act, the legislature exempted playing
in home card games from the laws that prohibit all forms
of gambling except those licensed and played in the
casinos. The exact exemption is for “games played
with cards in private homes or residences in which no
person makes money for operating the game, except as
a player.” Even Nevada, the
gambling capital of the world, has a virtually identical
definition. Similar statutes exist in Texas, Arizona,
Oregon, and Colorado.
Take a rake and the legal landscape changes dramatically
in almost all states. Such was the case of Charles Winston
in Cleveland, Ohio. Charles argued that he was merely
entertaining relatives at his house when the police
arrived and arrested him for “operating a gambling
house” under city ordinance. The testimony of
liquor control agents, however, convinced the court
otherwise. The agents testified that, at about 5a.m.,
they approached the Winston home to investigate complaints
of illegal liquor sales. The front door was open and
four people were observed playing cards. The agent saw
Winston take his “cut” from the pot and
place it into his sock. The defendant argued that the
persons in the house were all relatives and the money
found on the table at the time of the police raid was
simply his cigarette money. The court went with the
liquor control agents’ testimony.
Other states that permit home games can be more restricting
than Michigan and Nevada. For example, the State of
Florida only permits “penny-ante” games.
While these are not literally penny games, they are
very low limit games and unsuspecting participants can
easily violate the law without knowing it. A penny-ante
game is subject to the following restrictions:
The winnings of any player in a single round, hand,
or game do not exceed $10 in value.
The game must be conducted in a residential premises
owned or rented and occupied by a participant or its
common areas and includes college dorms and publicly
owned community centers.
No one can take a rake.
No one can charge admission or any other fee for participation
in the game.
No one can solicit participants by means of advertising
in any form, advertise the time or place of any penny-ante
game, or advertise that he or she will be a participant
in any penny-ante game.
A penny-ante game may not be conducted in which any
participant is less than 18 years old.
Florida is typical of most states in one respect in
that a debt created or owed as a consequence of any
penny-ante game is not legally enforceable. Only a few
states will allow participants in a home game to go
to court to collect their winnings. Colorado is an example.
A court in Denver had to arbitrate a dispute among
friends as to whether a debt occurred at one home game
could be enforced. Ervin Houston was hosting a game
at his home. His friend, Michael Younghans, and others,
purchased chips at the start of the game. When the game
was over, the players cashed in their chips. This posed
a problem for Houston, who didn’t pay for his
chips at the start of play. As a result, he did not
have the money to repurchase all the chips. So he paid
Younghans with checks totaling $240. When Houston only
repaid $75, Younghans sued him for the balance. Houston
claimed he did not have to pay gambling debts which
were against public policy and therefore not enforceable.
The court disagreed. While it noted that, ordinarily,
gambling debts are not enforceable, “social gambling”
is specifically legal in Colorado. This was defined
as a game “incidental to a bona fide social relationship”,
in which no one is participating as a professional gambler.
Therefore, the debt was enforced.
Two important points to take away from this discussion
are (1) while prosecution is unlikely, you cannot assume
that the home poker game is legal in your state or city,
and (2) even if it is legal, you are unlikely to be
able to collect if you win and are not paid.
| Lay Down the
Law: Dumbass gambling laws from around the US |
| Arizona |
In Globe, AZ, cards may not be played in the street
with a Native American. Hmm, can someone call a
civil rights attorney? |
| New Hampshire |
In New Hampshire, you cannot sell the clothes
you are wearing to pay off a gambling debt. |
| Oklahoma |
And speaking of clothes, or the lack thereof,
in Schulter, Oklahoma, women may not gamble in the
nude, in lingerie, or while wearing a towel –
spoilsports! Having said that, have you seen the
chicks in Schulter? |
| Virginia |
Some laws, designed to protect us from ourselves
and shelter us from the evils of gambling, are a
little over the top. In Richmond, VA, it’s
illegal to flip coins to decide who pays for coffee,
while in La Crosse, WI, it’s illegal to play
checkers in public. Checkers – it’s
a slippery slope.We all know checkers leads to harder
stuff – like backgammon. |
| Maine |
In Maine, the most money one can legally win gambling
is three lousy bucks, which is the exact amount
you could be fined – per pack – should
you be rumbled playing cards in Indiana. |
| California |
In San Francisco, it’s illegal to play poker
in public or gamble in a ‘barricaded room’.
We guess this means that you can only play poker
by yourself, provided you keep the door open. And
we always thought what San Franciscans did behind
closed doors was their own business! |
Anthony Cabot is a law partner with
Lewis & Roca in its Las Vegas office. He coedits
the “Gaming Law Review”. He is an adjunct
professor with Boyd College of Law (UNLV) and has authored
six books on gaming law. Cabot is the president of the
International Masters of Gaming Law. He is recognized
in Best Lawyers In America, for both Information Technology
and Gaming Law and in Chambers USA, as a “Leading
Lawyer for Business” for Gaming Regulation.
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