Virginia Poker Players Caught on Legal Roller Coaster
Virginia Gambling Laws
It is fair to say that Virginia’s gambling laws are a bit antiquated. While there are many examples, the most pertinent to poker is that it still falls into the category of games of chance. That makes live poker rooms illegal. There have been numerous attempts to change the law, to specifically exempt poker from the broader category of gambling. Those efforts included a Senate bill in 2011 (and repeated in 2012) that failed to pass the committee, and another Senate bill in 2012. A bill in 2017 did make it to the Senate, where it barely passed, but it then failed in a subsequent committee. More recent attempts failed early in the bill approval process as well. There is an exception to the gambling law. Under the state’s law, there is a charitable gaming section. That definition includes raffles, games of chance authorized by the law, and Texas Hold’em poker tournaments. This is broken down to a definition of an “organized competition of players” who do the following:--pay a fixed fee to enter the competition, for which they receive poker chips to use in said competition --may pay an additional fee for additional poker chips --might be seated at one or more tables to play Texas Hold’em --face elimination from the tournament when they run out of chips --win prizes based on a pre-set number of players to win and how long they remain in the tournamentThe Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is in charge of charitable gaming. It has the Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs (OCRP) that issues licenses and gaming permits for charitable purposes. And the Charitable Gaming Board adopt rules and procedures, as well as to oversee license application and licenses.
Started with a Scandal
The current confusion about the poker tournament laws led to a bit of a kerfuffle with the Joint Subcommittee on Charitable Gaming. Chairman of that board, Chuck Lessin, had been a part of the movement to allow charity-based poker rooms for tournaments. And he subsequently opened Pop’s Poker Room in the city of Richmond. He then rented that space to people who wanted to run tournaments. Some members of the board wanted him removed due to a conflict of interest. https://twitter.com/statesnewsroom/status/1442925612180520965?s=20&t=KZtp85wx5sJqb731VKZzVA The VDACS stopped all licenses for charitable gaming permits, at which time Lessin sued the VDACS. And he won. Even so, pressure from lawmakers and the VDACS forced Lessin to close Pop’s in July 2022. “We need to await new licensing requirements,” the website noted. The following month, Pop’s management posted a message on its website.The statement noted that multiple charity poker rooms have banded together to hire lobbying firms and pay for legal assistance. Pop’s vowed to “continue to fight the good fight.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UD6-JYqgg0“The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) which is the home of the Office of Charitable Gaming, has continually dragged their feet and obstructed the promulgation of the law enacting poker in Virginia. They delayed the submission of the regulations surrounding poker, thereby missing a deadline and effectively negating all of the regulations. As a result they have not issued any licenses.
“A bill passed in January of 2022 made it illegal to play poker without a license under penalty of a $25,000-$50,000 per occurrence. In essence they shut down the entire industry with one simple bill.
“A Virginia Beach charity sought an injunction against this new bill. On June 30, 2022, the injunction was denied and on July 1, 2022, the new law went into effect and all charitable poker in Virginia was shut down under threat of an unusually large and unfair penalty. We sought an appeal with the Virginia Supreme Court, but that was recently denied.”
