GAMBLER
12-31-2005, 01:31 PM
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15834688&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=532215&rfi=6
12/29/2005
State ruling brings charity poker runs to a halt
By: Nancy Flake , Courier staff
Local motorcycle clubs and other groups who raise money by giving cash prizes in charity poker runs have had their bluff called by the Texas Attorney General.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Attorney General Greg Abbott said such poker runs, which involve participants making a monetary donation to a nonprofit cause and then riding to a predetermined location and drawing a poker hand for cash, are a "lottery" set up by the motorcycle club and constitute illegal gambling.
The Texas Penal Code defines a lottery as "any scheme or procedure whereby one or more prizes are distributed by chance among persons who have paid or promised consideration for a chance to win anything of value, whether such scheme or procedure is called a pool, lottery, raffle, gift, gift enterprise, sale, policy game, or some other name."
However, Abbott's ruling refers only to cash prizes awarded at the end of poker runs and notes that any nonprofit organization sponsoring a poker run where participants receive a five-card hand for each $10 donation they make to a charitable cause violates Chapter 47.03 of the Penal Code.
Such a violation is a Class A misdemeanor and punishable by either fine of up to $4,000, up to a year in jail, or both.
The ruling was issued based on a request by Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk in June, when Sistrunk asked whether a poker run promoted by the Texas XXXI Chapter of the Blue Knights, a motorcycle club made up entirely of active and retired law enforcement personnel, was legal. The poker run was a benefit for Galveston County Sheriff's Deputy Michel Roy, who was severely injured in an on-duty motor vehicle accident in April.
Members of a local Blue Knights chapter in Montgomery County, which was organized in July, have been awaiting the outcome of the Attorney General's decision, according to Detective Ray Wilkins, of the Panorama Village Police Department, president of the chapter.
"We're not doing poker runs now until we can set up guidelines that will follow the law," he said. "Once Galveston recorded the complaint, we stopped all poker runs until we knew what would happen."
While curtailing the cash prizes may have an effect on fund-raising efforts for the group, Wilkins said "there's a way" to do poker runs without violating the laws. He also believes such violations should be prosecuted, even if it's law enforcement officials who do the violating.
"We're not above the law," he said. "The law applies to us just like anyone else. We would be violating our oath if we did not uphold the law. We don't expect any special treatment.
"We have an image to uphold and we work hard to promote a positive image."
But the Attorney General needs to "re-examine this and what it's all about," said Lt. Russell Reynolds, of the Conroe Police Department, treasurer for the Point Blank chapter of the Los Carnales ("The Brotherhood") motorcycle club, which is also made up entirely of current and retired law enforcement personnel.
"I don't feel these charity poker runs are gambling," Reynolds said. "Six guys sitting around a poker table is OK, but trying to raise money is not.
"There's a problem there."
Reynolds said he believes the ban on poker run cash prizes will have "a lot of effect" on groups that raise money for charitable causes.
The motorcycle club that probably raises the most money for charity in Montgomery County is the Cut and Shoot Harley Owners Group, which gave out more than $70,000 to local nonprofit groups in July and then gave another $10,000 to the Salvation Army for Hurricane Katrina relief, according to David Moore, sponsor of the group and owner of Texan Harley-Davidson in Conroe.
The HOG chapter raise money primarily through an annual motorcycle raffle, but it also holds poker runs. However, "Out of five or six (in the past year), only two had cash paybacks," Moore said. "That will cease."
Prizes in the poker runs without cash awards were plaques displaying the winning poker hand, he said.
Not being able to give away cash "may hinder us somewhat," Moore said, and some riders who have participated in poker runs may choose not to do so again because they can't win cash.
"The people who are in it for the money, they're not in it for the right reason," he said. "To the people who do it for the camaraderie, it's not going to matter to them. They're going to hold their plaques high.
"We're not going to lose them."
Nancy Flake can be reached at nflake@mail.hcnonline.net