Playing poker in your own house.

Factual Questions
21

It doesn’t actually matter at this point what justification those long-ago lawmakers had. SCOTUS has ruled that there is no legitimate state interest in regulating private consensual sodomy. As to whether the UCMJ’s sodomy reg would also fall under Lawrence, that’s an open question. My non-lawyerly opinion is that the likely rationale the military would offer in defense of the reg, that it is important for maintaining unit morale and cohesion, are total bullshit but then I’m not on the Supreme Court.

I’m not going to dig through the caselaw at the moment, but the First Amendment is precisely the basis for the right to possess pornographic and even obscene material in the privacy of the home. “Community standards” can’t be used to ban the merely pornographic; the material must be judged “obscene” under community standards (and there’s a three part test which the material must meet before it can be so adjudged). Child pornography is bannable because of the actual harm done to actual children in its production. Attempts to ban material in which the performers merely appear to be underage have not to date been sustained by SCOTUS.

So anyway, after typing all of that up, I’m not entirely sure what your point in this thread is.

22

a better analogy is drug law. Why should the state interfere with my “right” to get stoned, even though it does?

23

Bets and wagers, like office pools and poker games are ok just about everywhere. Like someone mentioned, as long as there is no ‘juice’ money, or money kept by ‘the house’, or the organizer.

Don’t confuse things like Bingo games, where the house does keep money and push it to different needs, in which case it needs to be regulate/licensed.

We went through this ten years ago in our office when a mgr stopped wager between rivals and stopped office pools.

Our corp atty set them straight and said all is fine, unless money was skimmed.

24

When I was in the academy I specifically asked this same question, because I enjoy playing poker with my friends.

In Ohio at least, as long as the house is not taking any sort of “cut” from the money, its perfectly legal. That’s why all the office football pools are legal. All the money that comes in must be paid out. The point where it becomes illegal is if the person organizing the pool takes out some money, even if its just to cover the costs of running the pool - thats a big no-no.

I’ll try to find a cite, but the gambling portion of the O.R.C. takes up several pages.

25

I don’t think that this is true. According to this any bets made on the premises of a business are illegal in Ohio.
http://winner.com/Articles/USA__OH-_Joining_Office_Pools_is_a_Gamble/USA__OH-_Joining_Office_Pools_is_a_Gamble466006.asp

This one says that in PA it is illegal to run a pool.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/2003/03/18/news/front/5409321.htm

In related news this one sure thinks that a poker game at home in California with no one making money except because of gambling winnings is OK.
http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/homepoker/augustine01.htm

26

Ok, I’ve found a cite with the O.R.C. Bear with me if I screw up the links.

§ 2915.02 Gambling.

(A) No person shall do any of the following:

(1) Engage in bookmaking, or knowingly engage in conduct that facilitates bookmaking;

(2) Establish, promote, or operate or knowingly engage in conduct that facilitates any game of chance conducted for profit or any scheme of chance;

(3) Knowingly procure, transmit, exchange, or engage in conduct that facilitates the procurement, transmission, or exchange of information for use in establishing odds or determining winners in connection with bookmaking or with any game of chance conducted for profit or any scheme of chance;

(4) Engage in betting or in playing any scheme or game of chance as a substantial source of income or livelihood;

(5) With purpose to violate division (A)(1), (2), (3), or (4) of this section, acquire, possess, control, or operate any gambling device

The key words in this section are for profit.

Section 2915.03 deals with an owner of a dwelling allowing gambling in violation of section 2915.02. Which means that if I allowed someone to conduct in gambling for profit within my house, then I could be in trouble. O.R.C. 2915.03

O.R.C.2915.04 deals with gambling in a public place. Although gambling (whether for pleasure or profit) in a hotel lobby is illegal, gambling in your hotel room would not be, since it is considered your “home” and you would be protected by the fourth amendment. Also, I think your place of business would not fall under “public accomodation” unless you allow strangers to freely walk around.

There are other sections of the O.R.C that expressly permit other forms of gambling, such as bingo and lottery, but that is another can of worms. Besides, the OP asked if it was if it was legal in one’s home.

IANAL, but I am a cop and I remember my instructor telling me that I could legally place a wager over a game of pool with my friend in a bar, because that is considered a test of skill rather than a game of chance. However, most bars simply avoid the entire issue by not allowing wagering on the property.

27

The laws against private gambling are different all through North America. In some places, poker is illegal, period. In others, it’s only illegal in public places. In yet others, it’s illegal if the house rakes the pot.

Here in Alberta, it’s perfectly legal to play private poker games. It may even be legal to set up a public ‘poker club’ where people pay a flat monthly dues to keep the bills paid, as long as no one makes a profit.

Where the line is drawn is when the pot is ‘raked’. If a set amount of money is taken out of every pot, then it’s commercial poker, and doing it without a license is ‘Running a common gaming house’.

I used to play in several such ‘gray-market’ clubs, where there was no ‘rake’, but players were encouraged to ‘donate’ some money if they won a pot. Needless to say, this was skirting a pretty fine line, and two of those clubs were shut down when they went a little too far (having employees collect the ‘donation’ did one of them in - another was done in when an owner of the club berated an undercover cop for not ‘donating’).

28

What Sam Stone said. It varies from state to state, and even in some cases from locality to locality.

Here are the state laws re home poker for Texas.

29

Here are/is

GAMBLING STATUTES DATABASE for all 50 states

Here are the Oregon Gaming Laws