'Kitchen table' poker bill moving quickly

Hold on for just a little longer South Carolina, and you'll finally be able to play some social poker. Legal social poker, anyway, as a recent bill initiated to change the state's archaic gambling laws has just moved past the subcommittee stage.

Under the 200-year-old state laws of South Carolina, games of cards and chance are, surprisingly, still illegal. Poker is, for one. Monopoly, even, for another.

But not for much longer, the Charleston Post and Courier is reporting.

In response to the outdated laws and the recent arrests of 22 poker players at a home game, State Rep. Wallace Scarborough, a Republican from Charleston, initiated a bill to eradicate the set of laws he deemed, ""ridiculous, considering we live in a modern era."

And so far, so good. His bill legalizing social games of poker has just passed a subcommittee and is expected to go to the full Judiciary Committee this week.

The bill allows for social poker games, in which the house doesn't take a cut, to now be legal. Scarborough was quoted in the paper as saying the bill has moved "surprisingly fast," and the chances of the bill passing seem "really good."

courtesy of Christopher Hunt

News Added: 26 February, 2007

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