Crackdown on Card Rooms in NYC

shoutman

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051121/ap_on_re_us/poker_clubs_losing_hand

interesting article.
cant really see the garda siochana following suit though

RoundTower

It's partly interesting because New York has similar laws to Ireland here. Public gambling is illegal, but it is legal for private citizens to gamble among themselves. In principle, this means there is nothing wrong with private clubs in which the members gamble among themselves, so long as nobody is making a profit by promoting the club.

The next step from that is to have a private club where there are no profits, and any money left over after expenses is redistributed to the members. Of course, the law doesn't lay down exactly how this money must be redistributed, so why not give 99% of it back to those of the members who own the club?

The New York authorities took the view that the poker clubs were in fact running a business, although they had let them be for quite some time. Political considerations were important here; it would be the same in Ireland if there was a real public anti-gambling backlash, the card clubs would be the easiest target, and closing them down would make it look like the government were doing something about it.