State ruling brings charity poker runs to a halt
Local motorcycle clubs and other groups who raise money by giving cash prizes in charity poker runs have had their bluff called by the Texas Attorney General.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Attorney General Greg Abbott said such poker runs, which involve participants making a monetary donation to a nonprofit cause and then riding to a predetermined location and drawing a poker hand for cash, are a “lottery” set up by the motorcycle club and constitute illegal gambling.
The Texas Penal Code defines a lottery as “any scheme or procedure whereby one or more prizes are distributed by chance among persons who have paid or promised consideration for a chance to win anything of value, whether such scheme or procedure is called a pool, lottery, raffle, gift, gift enterprise, sale, policy game, or some other name.”
However, Abbott’s ruling refers only to cash prizes awarded at the end of poker runs…
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Useful poker terms:
- BAD GAME - Any game in which you figure to be the loser, because the other players are better than you.
- EXPECTATION - The long-run [dis-]advantage of a given situation, specifically without reference to any particular outcome. I.e., what you figure to win [lose] on average after a large number of repetitions of the same situation.
- STACKED [DECK] - A deck that has been arranged to give one player a huge advantage. Also: RIGGED.
- BIG BLIND - A blind bet, usually a raise of an earlier blind which would be called the SMALL BLIND. In limit poker, the BIG BLIND is usually the size of the minimum bet on the first round of betting.
- OVERCALL - To call a bet after one or more players already called.
- HOLE CARDS - In Stud and Hold'em, the face-down cards dealt to each player.
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