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 Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:21 am Post subject: Colorado Poker is a Gray Area of the Law... |
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Lots of gray in gambling laws
| Quote: | Poker raid prompts calls for clarification
By JANE REUTER THE GAZETTE
The Colorado attorney general says poker games played in bars and restaurants statewide are illegal, but 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome, like other district attorneys, doesn’t plan a massive crackdown on poker nights.
State gaming authorities allow Newsome that latitude. They say enforcement of Colorado’s gambling laws is subject to broad interpretation — a matter for individual district attorneys to decide.
“We are going to analyze these on a case-by-case basis,” Newsome said. “I see these games all over town. Even my neighborhood restaurants are running some kind of poker tournaments. I can see why restaurants want clarification. My sense is there are a lot of people who like to play cards who are not criminals.”
Gambling enforcement was brought into focus in April, when 24 people were arrested in Guadala-Jarra’s restaurant during a Texas Hold ’Em poker game in Palmer Lake. Felony charges against owner Jeff Hulsmann and his wife, Peggy Jardon, were deferred for a year last week, and the charges will be dismissed if the couple adheres to conditions attached to the court order.
Most of the cases against the 22 card players, all charged with professional gambling, have been dismissed.
Newsome has said Hulsmann’s game violated the law because it featured a buy-in of up to $15. Also, undercover officers did not know other players at the tables, which meant that the games violated the state law’s requirement that players have a “bona fide social relationship.”
There are many opinions, legal and otherwise, about precisely what constitutes a bona fide social relationship.
Newsome plans to launch a public education campaign and will encourage local lawenforcement officers to talk with restaurant owners and managers. If law-enforcement agencies approve the games, Newsome said he won’t order them to stop the event.
“If a business calls (Colorado Springs police) and talks to them about it first, I’m completely satisfied,” he said.
Champps sports bar at 1765 Briargate Parkway did just that before it added a poker night in September 2004. General manager Don Tavares said he invited Colorado Springs police to the restaurant, and he obtained the go-ahead to host the games.
Nevertheless, Attorney General John Suthers, who once held Newsome’s job, issued an opinion that unsettles people working in the gambling industry, particularly those riding the wave of Texas Hold ’Em poker’s popularity.
Bars and restaurants nationwide offer Texas Hold ’Em tournament nights, some rewarding the top players with gift certificates or bar tabs.
Questions about the games’ legality linger in the wake of the Palmer Lake gambling case and the definition of gambling remains cloudy.
State gaming officials say a public game must include the elements of consideration, or payment, chance and reward.
“The gray area is the consideration or payment,” said Colorado Division of Gaming spokesman Don Burmania, “if they pay to play.”
The statute is violated “if the patron has to contribute anything in any way in order to play,” he said. “For example, they couldn’t have a (minimum) drink requirement. The main question is, do the free games take out the payment component? That’s our position, and it’s up for interpretation.”
Because the Guadala-Jarra’s poker game fees were paid to a poker club, not the restaurant, Hulsmann said he thought the games were legal.
“We would love to see clarification,” said Chris Poundstone, Colorado director of the Amateur Poker League. “There is a gray area in the law.”
The Amateur Poker League, which sets up games in bars nationwide, allows its participants to play only for points. Prizes are not awarded. Poundstone said the league is set up that way to avoid any potential violations.
Even if a bar doesn’t require a fee to play, it violates the law if its sales increase during a gambling event, according to Suthers’ statement.
That section of the law allows establishments to host games as long as the business doesn’t intend to profit from it or the players enjoy a bona fide social relationship.
Players have a bona fide social relationship if they have a connection outside the game, according to the Colorado Division of Gaming. But the state law provides little guidance in further defining such relationships, and whether an appellate court might frown on the ambiguity won’t be known unless — or until — someone appeals a gambling conviction.
Faced with a public that is hardly clamoring for a gambling crackdown, Colorado’s district attorneys don’t appear enthused at the prospect of busting up poker games.
In the Palmer Lake case, all but the undercover officers who joined the game knew one another. The officers’ presence violated the social relationship clause, Burmania said.
Under Suthers’ strict interpretation of the law, Hulsmann was guilty of making an illegal profit.
Profit can be interpreted as increased sales, according to Suthers.
“The attorney general’s viewpoint is that even if they have no buy-in, if the bar is profiting from this game, it would be illegal,” said Kristen Hubbell, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office. “They’re perhaps purchasing additional drinks. That does result in additional profit.”
Champps doesn’t charge players to participate, which removes the element of consideration from the games. But Champ’s awards the best players with restaurant gift certificates and managers say the games beef up attendance.
“We fill approximately four to five tables (of 10 each) depending upon the week,” manager Christina Elliott said.
Poundstone said the attorney general’s interpretation is troubling.
“What makes karaoke legal?” he said. “If a bar owner does not have the freedom to bring in entertainment to try to increase attendance, they should do away with bars altogether. They’re taking away free market.”
Hulsmann, who says he lost $50,000 and the restaurant in the raid’s wake, cites the games’ increasing popularity as incentive to clarify the law.
District attorneys also are discussing the laws, Newsome said.
“I think every jurisdiction is dealing with this area,” he said. “This is not a phenomenon that is solely located in the Pikes Peak Region.” |
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