Attorney General to Challenge Legal Poker Ruling in South Carolina

A group of men in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina were playing their low stakes home game in 2006 when a group of local police officers burst in the home to arrest them. They were being charged with illegal gambling under the states’ old gaming laws. The archaic law stated that ‘any games with cards or dice’ were outlawed. Most of the group paid their fine and went about their lives but a few of the men protested the law. In October of 2009 those men were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now it seems their struggle to clear their names may not be over. The Attorney General has submitted an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The few players who did not plead guilty have always argued from a platform of skill vs. gambling. The ever present Poker Player’s Alliance were quick to step in and advise the plaintiffs to demonstrate that poker was skill not gambling, and so not covered by SC law. Key testimony came from Dr. Robert Hannum of the University of Denver. He used statistical analysis to show that the winner in a session of poker was primarily determined by skill and not by luck. The judge was convinced, but took a strict reading of the vague gaming statute and decreed that the home-game players had still contravened the law.

The remaining rebels agreed to fight on and took their case before Judge Markely Dennis. With the help of expert witnesses like Poker Ambassador Mike Sexton, they convinced Judge Dennis that poker’s skill factor absolved them from falling under the South Carolina gaming laws. The Judge was also gravely concerned with the inappropriateness of the archaic “cards or dice” law. “Simply put, [the law], as written, has the potential to make criminals of virtually every man, woman, and child in the state of South Carolina,” he said.

Attorney General Henry McMaster does not agree, and has submitted a 57-page file to the South Carolina Supreme Court to prove it. It is his belief that, regardless of whether or not poker is skill, it should still be outlawed in South Carolina. “In the General Assembly’s view, the ills resulting from games played for money does not depend upon the particular game or the nature in which it was played.” It also seems likely that the Supreme Court will take a closer look at the current broad gambling law as part of the process.

No date has been set for the hearing, but it is sure to affect thousands of SC residents. One South Carolina poker player has gained particular prominence over the last few months, thanks to his run on FOX’s PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge. Rev. Andrew Trapp, a poker playing priest from from Garden City, won $100,000 on the show and came close to competing for the full $1,000,000. His appearance became a local and global sensation and brought unforeseen publicity to the church fund to which he donated all of his winnings. Rev. Trapp was happy to state that he regularly played in poker games; sessions that would presumably be declared illegal if McMaster and the General Assembly get their way.

News Added: 05 January, 2010

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