Should charity poker tournaments be illegal?
Posted by admin on July 31st, 2008
I’m of the belief that anything, when done in moderation, is just fine, so long as it does not infringe on the rights of others or hurt other people in any way. This includes poker, especially if it’s being done for charity.
So you can imagine my dismay today when I read a PokerNews brief about some firemen in West Virginia who got in some serious trouble over a few poker fundraisers they held to, well, raise money.
Authorities say the poker tournaments the poker tournaments the Westmorland Seward Volunteer Fire Company organized are illegal, and now the law is coming down on them.
The fine that the West Virginia Attorney General’s office is seeking to impose on the fire house is equal to what the department raised with its charity tournaments: $40,000. The Texas Holdem tournaments were held over the course of the past year. The attorney general said that the tournaments were illegal regardless of what the purpose was, charity or not.
Now, since this was a charity, I’d argue the department wasn’t in this to make any money. It was definitely more for the fun, and the fact that it was a game many people enjoy playing pretty much any time of year, it enticed people to donate who might normally not have done so.