Paying to Play Poker
Please understand that I support buy-ins and rakes for games and tournaments.... the reason for posting this is strictly to invite dialogue on the matter.
KWSOP has been cancelled due to the threat of legal action and I see that there are others offering games with buy-ins and some with rakes as well.
In researching for the Elgin Poker Classic, as a holder of a Liquor License and a Manufacturers License, I had to guarantee hosting a legal game or threaten losing my licenses.
This was the information that I was presented with and confirmed by legal council. Rakes are obviously payment to play in the game. Whether the organizer has a profit or loss is inconsequential. Buy-ins constitute a money making scheme, meaning, that you can not offer someone the opportunity to put money in for the chance of winning more. That's gambling (God forbid)
That 50-50 draw that you buy into at a baseball game or at a charity event, if unlicensed, is illegal! Even poker and gambling websites are illegal, but the government can't seem to be able to enforce the law on these sites, Yet!
Yah! Yah! I can hear the grumblings now..... We are all adults... we are responsible for our own actions .... yada, yada, yada ..... The government's paint brush to protect everyone, unfortunately affects our poker games as well. For those of you promoting buy-in and especially rakes..... be carefull how you promote those.
This leads to my final note, Donations and Sponsorships. A way to overcome the law would be to accept donations and/or sponsorhips to your tournament, with 100% of the contributions going to the prize pool. The contributions are strictly voluntary and no "fees" are charged to any player. The problem with this is that some will donate, others will not.
KWSOP has been cancelled due to the threat of legal action and I see that there are others offering games with buy-ins and some with rakes as well.
In researching for the Elgin Poker Classic, as a holder of a Liquor License and a Manufacturers License, I had to guarantee hosting a legal game or threaten losing my licenses.
This was the information that I was presented with and confirmed by legal council. Rakes are obviously payment to play in the game. Whether the organizer has a profit or loss is inconsequential. Buy-ins constitute a money making scheme, meaning, that you can not offer someone the opportunity to put money in for the chance of winning more. That's gambling (God forbid)
That 50-50 draw that you buy into at a baseball game or at a charity event, if unlicensed, is illegal! Even poker and gambling websites are illegal, but the government can't seem to be able to enforce the law on these sites, Yet!
Yah! Yah! I can hear the grumblings now..... We are all adults... we are responsible for our own actions .... yada, yada, yada ..... The government's paint brush to protect everyone, unfortunately affects our poker games as well. For those of you promoting buy-in and especially rakes..... be carefull how you promote those.
This leads to my final note, Donations and Sponsorships. A way to overcome the law would be to accept donations and/or sponsorhips to your tournament, with 100% of the contributions going to the prize pool. The contributions are strictly voluntary and no "fees" are charged to any player. The problem with this is that some will donate, others will not.
Comments
easily done.....
with every donation of x dollars, receive x chips.
labatt had an interesting twist..... buy beer..... get poker chip ..... get chance to play
But no money required to play!
stp