South Carolina to Test Legality of Poker

Recently there have been a rash of legal cases in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Colorado surrounding poker.  The legality of poker as a game of skill is once again being raised but this time in the state of South Carolina.  At the center of this legal debate is the fate of one college student.

Bob Chimento and several of his friends were playing in their home game when the police busted the game in April of 2006.  According to an article by the Associated Press, “a half-dozen police officers burst into the home, seizing several thousand dollars in cash and a small amount of marijuana.”  All those who were in attendance agreed to pay the $250 fine for the state’s gambling law charges that "any game with cards or dice" is illegal.  All those that is but Chimento.  The AP also notes that while Chimento stated that it was simple $20 home game but “Police said the gathering was not merely a friendly game, but an encounter that had been advertised online.”

The American Bar Association (ABA) journal has picked up the story putting poker front and center in the legal world for the South Carolina case.  The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has also gotten involved and allegedly helped to fund a recent court victory in Colorado.  One of the main questions in the South Carolina case will be to what degree skill must prevail over chance in order for a game to be considered legal.  The Associated Press shed some light on the subject by saying, “Attorney General Henry McMaster says his office has adopted a looser interpretation of that statute, one that only considers games more reliant on chance than on a player’s skill to be gambling and therefore illegal — an interpretation the top prosecutor says includes Texas Hold’em.”  An outcome in the case should not be long in coming as the case will kick off in February.