South Carolina Seeking Ruling on Poker

March 24, 2009

With the recent court case regarding poker in South Carolina, there are many who are wondering how they might change the laws in the state. There are some outdated laws on the books in the state that make certain kinds of poker illegal, and legislators are saying that it might be time to change the way that this is handled. They say that it might be time to change their laws to reflect the current interest in poker.

There is a law from 1802 that says that any game, not just poker, but any game that involved dice or cards is illegal. This means that games such as Monopoly are illegal in the state – thus the reason for the need of a law change. The law was originally set up to keep gambling out of homes, but because it is so outdated, the state would like to see no one else convicted of playing poker in their house.

The five defendants were accused and ultimately found guilty of playing poker in their homes. Senator Glenn McConnell is heading up the attempt to change the law that would make house poker games as well as fund raising “casino nights” legal. The bill would not make it simply that all poker games in the home are legal – there would be rules attached to it.

With this poker bill, the house could not make any money off of the game – nor can there be any betting odds that put the game in the houses favor. They game has to have people playing against each other, not the house like you would find in a casino. The judge that ruled on the case said that poker was a game of skill and therefore they were not breaking the law – but they were because of the outdated law.