There has been much ado regarding the legality of "charity" poker tournaments in Texas over the past several months. I've grown weary of reading everyone's "interpretation" of Texas Penal law on the subject, so let me attempt to set the record straight. It is CRYSTAL CLEAR that the Texas Attorney General's office views such tournaments as illegal. Though not a completely dispositive interpretation on the law as written, the AG's opinions have historically provided law enforcement with the guidance to enforce the criminal law. And the bottom line on the AG's view is this: if you pay money (or any other consideration) to enter any poker tournament where any type of prize is awarded, you are breaking the law. Period. End of ball game, go home.Oh, but that's only dealing with the "holder of an on-premises alcoholic beverage permit" you might say, and you'd be right and wrong. Right in that the AG's opinion dealt specifically with that question. Wrong in that its well-thought-out-if-wrongly-concluded opinion does not hinge on the alcoholic beverage permit. That aspect of it merely allows the TABC to enforce the violation. It's still a violation of the Texas Penal Code regardless of whether TABC (or your local law enforcement) has the authority to shut you down and/or throw you in the can.
11 comments:
so, what does that mean for a place that holds no alcohol permit?
p.s. you do realize that deleting comments, unless they are libelous, is kinda against the bloggers' code?
In answer to anonymous, I believe that the deleted post was one of those spamming ones (we're still figuring out how to avoid those). Is it against bloggers' code to delete those even though they may not be libelous? It seems that the spams would be inconsequential to the point of the comments section.
no, deleting spam is acceptable. in fact, it is a fight that bloggers take on together ... spammers are evil in the blog world, as are shill sites.
Cool. And please note that we only shill degenerate poker players like ourselves.
So how do you get rid of an AG....er, legally?
Elections.
I agree 100% with TBR, charity poker is 100% illegal. TABC has nothing to do with it. The original statute says you are gambling. The Ector county decision was specifically dealing with poker in bars. The AG's decision clarified that, but did not in any way change the original statute.
well if chuck and randy are correct, then shane's win at La Riata last year was illegal, as will be the future winner's.
when the laws are miswritten, it becomes all about loopholes. and they have one at the Riata this year. technically, they are giving the seats away by raffle. but does a raffle become illegal if you still have to be in the tournament for your raffle ticket to be eligible?
and what if phil hellmuth decides to shake the hand of the winner and tell him (or her) that he will buy them into the WSOP himself as a congratulatory gift. that's totally legal, right?
well, hey, if his fee happened to go up $12k or so ... there's nothing illegal about that, either, right?
i hope you two legal lovebirds enjoy not exceeding any speed limits.
And some other thoughts ...
gay sex was long illegal in texas. but was it really?
in some states, any non-penis-vagina sex was illegal -- even amongst married people. (in texas only the homos weren't allowed to have mouths on their peepees.)
do you think those laws really stopped people from playing poker?
Dan, the discussion had nothing to do with whose penis you wanted to put your mouth on, and everything to do with legality.
Perception of legality, and actual prosecution/enforcement of said laws were not in question.
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