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Poker Expo in
California Cancelled
The Attorney General's Office of California is
bearing the brunt of sharp criticizing after they cancelled the 2005
California Gaming Expo planned to go down in just days at the Long
Beach Convention Center.
The move is very surprising, and has some
questioning whether there was erroneous information passed onto the
Attorney General's staff. According to the Expo's founder and
chief promoter (who has now lost a considerable amount of money),
the event was shut down because there were several events on the
itinerary that called for poker gambling demonstrations. The
exact wording used by the Attorney General's Office was that there
were several events scheduled that are considered illegal by law.
However, the convention, which was going to primarily focus on
poker, only had a handful of live poker demonstrations on the
agenda. The lease on the convention specifically prescribed
the demonstrations to use fake money only - which is perfectly legal
in the state of California (or at least the expo's organizers
thought since it is a very common practice at "casino" events
and promotion parties. Whether the fake money games of poker
were factored into the cancellation of the convention or not, other
factors could have been to blame, such as the giving away of free
gambling coupons from a sponsoring tribal casino and poker room.
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