South Carolina AG Appeals Poker Ruling
Written by RogerCP | Thursday, December 31st, 2009
The Charleston publication, Post and Courier, reported today that South Carolina’s Attorney General is appealing a previous ruling that poker, including online poker sites for US players is a game of skill and less a game of chance.
In September, a circuit judge overturned the conviction of five Mount Pleasant poker players who were charged with holding games of Texas Hold ‘em after a raid in their private home in 2006.
More than 20 people were arrested, with the majority opting to plead guilty and not fight the charges. Five, however, opted to confront the charges in court, where they first convicted of gambling before the ruling was overturned by Judge R. Markley Dennis.
Judge Dennis argued at the time that Texas Hold ‘em strategy is a game of skill and not of chance, and therefore does not constitute gambling (which is illegal under state law).
At the same time, Judge Dennis criticized the state’s gambling laws and called them “unconstitutionally vague and over-broad.”
A South Carolina law dating back to 1802 makes games with cards or dice illegal. If taken literally, this also means popular board games such as Monopoly.
However, Attorney General Henry McMaster was obviously not happy with Judge Dennis’ ruling and it was reported that he is appealing the decision.
According to the Post and Courier, the appeal filing read: “Our obvious reason that ‘chance’ need not be determined with respect to a particular game for purpose of the gambling statute is that the legislature sought to ban all ‘gaming’ for stakes at designated locations.”
“In other words,” said the filing, “in 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 is expected that state lawmakers will discuss a bill during the next session at the beginning of the year that will make friendly poker games legal.
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· Written by RogerCP · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
