Poker tourneys gamble with law

RALEIGH, NC - Two Texas Hold 'em poker tournaments in the Triangle this month each attracted dozens of players hoping to win a big prize. Both events had at least one world-class poker player on hand.

And both were in violation of North Carolina's gambling laws, according to the head of the state's Alcohol Law Enforcement agency, which enforces them.

But only one of the tournaments, on a back road outside Benson, ended early when officers stormed through the front door and arrested everyone. The other, at a restaurant in Raleigh's Glenwood South district, went to the final round, with the winner headed to a resort at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

According to North Carolina law, any person who operates a game of chance or who bets on a game of chance involving cash, property or anything of value is guilty of a misdemeanor. But society's embrace of poker -- on TV and for recreation and charity fundraisers -- coupled with the inconsistent enforcement of state gambling laws, makes it difficult to know what's good, clean fun and what's going to bring down the law.

"You have got to be so careful," said Dean Ogan of Rocky Top Hospitalities, which hosted the Texas Hold 'em tournament at its Hi5 restaurant on Glenwood Avenue last week. "There are so many laws and stipulations."

Ogan said his company checked with the ALE to make sure the Texas Hold 'em tournament did not break any laws. Over 300 people registered, hoping to win a grand prize of tickets for two to Cabo San Lucas. The second-place winner was awarded a high-definition television; third place got $100.

The Hi5 poker tournament was sponsored by high-profile companies, Time Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and radio station G105. The official dealer for the night's eight finalists was Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer, who took home $5 million in 2004 when he won the World Series of Poker grand prize.

ALE Director Mike Robertson said his agency was not aware of the tournament at the Hi5. He said if there was an exchange of cash or other prizes such as the television and the vacation to Cabo San Lucas, then the tournament was illegal.

"That TV in that tournament came from somewhere. Somebody had to pay for it," Robertson said the following day.

But in the eyes of some prosecutors, there is a difference.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said that although charity tournaments or events such as the one held at Hi5 may be technically against the law, his office tries to use "ordinary common sense" when the proceeds are clearly for charitable purposes or where the purpose is to fill a restaurant or bar with patrons.

"I don't think that's what the legislature intended us to focus on," said Willoughby, who said those events contrast to gambling houses where people pay an entry fee to play and the proprietor takes a cut of the pot and profits from food and drinks.

That was the scenario ALE agents described on Sept. 10 when they walked into a single-story, wood-frame building on a rural road outside Benson and shut down a Texas Hold 'em tournament, citing more than 70 players for gambling. ALE agents seized more than $70,000 from the building on Bear Road, which they likened to a Las Vegas "mini-casino."

The agents used a tractor-trailer to haul away craps and blackjack tables, a roulette wheel and more than a dozen Texas Hold 'em poker tables.

The agents later characterized the raid as perhaps the largest of its kind in state history.

Many of the players at the Hi5 knew about the highly publicized Johnston County bust. They think the state's ban on playing poker for cash is unfair and hypocritical, given the state's lottery.

Jack Schrold, a South Florida lawyer who recently moved to Raleigh, was among the hundreds registering for a chance to play at the Hi5. Schrold used to play poker three or four times a week in Florida where the game is legal and called North Carolina's poker ban "a shame."

"It's quite hypocritical that this state has a legal lottery, but poker is considered unlawful," he said. "It's one of the only states where poker is not legal. Meanwhile, thousands of people in the state are playing."

Raymer, the pro who practiced law in Connecticut before moving to Raleigh in 2005, said state lawmakers who think poker is a game of chance, with fortunes won or lost on the turn of a card, are mistaken.

Raymer said that if he and Tiger Woods were competing in a golf match that consisted of a single 20-foot putt, he might beat the golfing great. But over 18 holes, Woods would certainly beat him.

"A poker match [between a skilled player and a novice] would take longer, but the outcome would be just as certain," he said.

The N.C. Court of Appeals heard that same argument last year when it denied the opening of a poker club in Durham.

"No amount of skill can change a deuce into an ace," the court concluded this spring.

Undeterred, Raymer, a Libertarian, said the question of whether poker is a game should not matter.

"If you are an adult, you do what you want," he said. "It's not my job as the government to try and protect you from yourself."

Thomas McDonald The News & Observer

News Added: 28 September, 2007

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