{"id":5833,"date":"2018-05-07T15:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T15:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/?p=5833"},"modified":"2018-05-08T04:08:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T04:08:03","slug":"legal-poker-in-texas-card-club-expansion-not-slowing-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/legal-poker-in-texas-card-club-expansion-not-slowing-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Poker In Texas? Card Club Expansion Not Slowing Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
One of the cruelest of life\u2019s ironies (for gamblers, anyway) has long been that one could not legally play Texas Hold\u2019em<\/strong> in the state of Texas<\/strong>. However, a small group of card clubs around the state seek to remedy that fact.<\/p>\n I recently sat down with the owners of the newest of these clubs, The Poker Club of West Houston<\/strong>. The club, which will open for business on May 7, seeks to become the example for legal poker in Texas.<\/p>\n Texas law on gambling<\/a> is rather austere. Except for lottery, bingo, and live racing carveouts, Texans must go to one of two Native American operations or travel out of state to gamble.<\/p>\n Otherwise, they are breaking the law. Or are they? There is a section of the code that proves relevant to the issue:<\/p>\n It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It is within these exceptions that The Poker Club of West Houston<\/strong> seeks to exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way we knew how to do this was absolutely legal,\u201d said Carl Pittman<\/strong>, President and CEO. Mr. Pittman and his business partner, Scott Ketcham<\/strong>. They spoke at length about their efforts to abide by the narrow spaces in the law that would allow them to offer poker to clients.<\/p>\n The easiest part to satisfy is the clause about risks of winning or losing \u2013 they simply need to run a fair game<\/strong>. However, they must conduct business in a specific way to satisfy the other two parts of the defense.<\/p>\n To qualify as a private place, the club will require potential members to complete an application, submit an initiation fee, and play through a 30-day probation period before they are granted full membership.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want everybody to be a member of this club,\u201d said Pittman. \u201cThat (makes the club) no different than your country clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n The portion of the law about receiving economic benefit forbids raking the pots in any way<\/strong>. The Poker Club of West Houston plans to charge an hourly seat fee<\/strong>, which will avoid the problem somewhat.<\/p>\n Also, the amount of the fee will not change regardless of the level of game, meaning that the club has no preference for one type of game or another. In fact, the payment for the hourly fees will remain separate from any activity on the table \u2013 all to remove any appearance of the club deriving economic benefit from the outcome of games.<\/p>\n So, to say they have no interest in breaking the law is to put it very mildly. Pittman and Ketcham also pledge to report cash transactions above the $10,000 threshold to the IRS<\/strong>, in accordance with Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n They even have self-exclusion forms for problem gamblers to bar themselves. Both men are committed to maintaining the highest standards of conduct with any club business.<\/p>\n As Ketcham said, \u201cOur goal is to be a benchmark standard.\u201d Those standards also extend to safety and security concerns.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nIt\u2019s not easy to gamble in Texas<\/span><\/h2>\n
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How poker clubs may thread the needle in the law<\/span><\/h2>\n
How to keep the games safe?<\/span><\/h2>\n