With “Black Friday” taking many of the popular online poker offerings away from American poker players, the small “home game” has become a viable alternative to grinding away in front of a computer. In the state of Indiana, the gaming commission has vowed to not target those home games, instead concentrating on large scale gambling operations.
An article in the Lafayette Journal and Courier by reporter Justin Mack discusses the state of gambling and poker, particularly in reference to those home games. Mack interviews a Lafayette resident, Brian Clawson, who enjoys playing poker with his friends and will occasionally put football bets on the line. “It’s just something guys do,” Clawson admits in the story. “It’s the whole competitive nature thing. No one gets hurt, and bragging rights are a little better when you’re winning some cash from your buddy.”
According to Mack, such activities are not something that will draw the attention of the Gaming Control Division, the enforcement arm of the Indiana Gaming Commission. Established in 2007, the GCD has been more interested in taking on large scale gaming operations, making 40 gambling-related arrests since it was established. In particular, the GCD has been on the hunt for illegal electronic games such as slot machines, confiscating well over 5000 of the devices as of January 2011.
Even though it doesn’t view home games as a threat, they do state that the law is very clear on what constitutes illegal gambling. The GCD doesn’t target home poker games until the house starts to take a rake from the pots, a view of gaming law that is common in many locales in the U. S. Once the house starts to take that rake, the game then becomes an illegal gambling operation.
The GCD covers the state with five officers assigned to each region of Northern, Southern and Central Indiana. Of particular interest to the officers are sports betting operations and dog fighting rings, but the occasional high stakes poker game will catch their attention. Beyond just the illegal gaming operations, Mack writes, are the various other crimes that can sometimes be attached to gambling, including drug, firearm and money laundering violations.
Sometimes the state gaming officials can truly strike against those big operations that they speak of. In August, a large gambling operation in Falls Church, Virginia, was raided by Falls Church law enforcement and the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force. The gambling ring, allegedly led by a Vietnamese family and operating as internet cafes out of shopping malls, had been in operation for several years before the raid. After raiding the establishments, the police allegedly found computers that were set up to look as if they were simply surfing the internet but were, in actuality, linked to gambling outlets and seized over $1 million in cash.
Then there is the other side of the equation. Many in the poker world remember the raid by law enforcement on a home poker game in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in 2006. Brandishing weapons and ski masks to obscure the identities of some of the undercover operatives, the officers interrupted a small tournament with 22 participants. All were issued citations for illegal gambling and authorities seized over $6,000 during the raid.
Players stated that the tournament had a small buy-in ($10) that only built a $220 prize pool. The players also contended that officers wrongly confiscated money that was in the pockets of players in addition to money that was found in other locations throughout the home.
When law enforcement targets large scale operations, it can be of benefit to the poker community. But when it steps over the bounds into non-raked home games, however, it can be argued that law enforcement is wasting its time violating the freedoms that Americans have to gather for a genial evening of poker.
