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South Carolina Poker Bills Likely Too Late for This Session
Wed, May 20th, 2009 @ 12:00am
Two key South Carolina bills (Senate bills 535 and 628) to legalize social games of poker moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, but observers point out that it is likely too late for them to be acted upon this year with so few days left in the Senate calendar. But there is little doubt that such proposals will be resubmitted for a vote in next year's session, as much support was heard during hearings around the state.
The current gambling law is over 200 years old, and bans "any game with cards or dice," so it definitely includes poker. But read literally, it also bans popular board games such as Monopoly and Sorry, or Bunko, a popular dice game.
Charleston County's Sen. Glenn McConnell, president pro tempore of the Senate, along with Senators Mulvaney, Ford, Land, Knotts, and Davis introduced senate Bill 535. McConnell called the bill "common sense" legislation, to allow citizens to socialize at home with a friendly game of cards. His gaming package also included a constitutional amendment that would allow non-profits to conduct a limited number of raffles each year. As the situation now stands, he contends non-profits "can't even have a cake raffle."
Senate bill 535 proposes, in its own words, that: "Gambling in a private home where no house player, house bank, or house odds exist and where the house receives no part of any of the money or other thing of value that is risked or wagered in the gambling in the private home is social gambling and is not unlawful."
Senate bill 628 makes social gambling a competent defense for a charge of "illegal gambling." And it also clears up a grey area by stipulating that games predominately decided by skill are "not unlawful." The bill was implemented with the help of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Despite ruling that poker is a game of skill by Judge Larry Duffy in February, he found the five poker players guilty who were arrested in a Mount Pleasant poker raid. Judge Duffy highlighted the need for more clarity in this respect in state law (click here for related article).
Besides updating the antiquated gaming law, poker itself has benefited during the process. As the PPA points out, momentum is gaining for accepting poker as a game where skill predominates over chance, thus removing the game from being included in the "illegal gambling" definitions.
PPA Executive Director John Pappas alluded to the lack of time to vote on the two bills, saying in a press release: "We urge the South Carolina Senate to quickly bring these pieces of legislation to the floor for a vote before the end of the session." Senate Bill 628 allows players to utilize a defense of social gambling against a charge of "unlawful gambling." More importantly, it notes that games deemed predominated by skill are "not unlawful."
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