- States Where Raffles Are Legal
- Are Online Raffles Legal In Texas
- Are Online Raffles Legal In Texas
- Texas Charitable Raffle Law
- Are 50/50 Raffles Legal In Texas
By Reid Jowers
Reporting Texas
In the wake of a pair of poker room raids in Houston, KPRC2 picked her brain on what is illegal and what is legal when it comes to gambling in Texas. The clubs made about $10 million since 2017. (g) A district or county attorney is not required to have a search warrant or subpoena to inspect a gambling device or gambling equipment or paraphernalia on an ocean-going vessel that enters the territorial waters of this state to call at a port in this state. Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p.
Texas Card House General Manager James Combs is seen on March 2, 2019. Texas Card House is a private club and requires a daily, monthly or yearly membership. Brittany Mendez/Reporting Texas
On a Monday afternoon in March, Will, a 24-year-old software engineer in Austin, was relaxing during a break from a poker game at the Texas Card House in North Austin, where brightly lit rooms and affable service are a contrast to the image some people might have of a gambling establishment.
Will (his last name has been omitted to protect his privacy) started playing poker five years ago when friends introduced him to the game. He loved it.
'I like that it's a beatable game. You focus and practice to get good. It's a matter of skill rather than luck like blackjack or other games,' Will said.
The Texas Constitution prohibits most forms of gambling. The few exceptions include private gambling at home, betting on sanctioned horse and dog races, the state lottery and gambling at one of the three Indian casinos in the state. During the last several years, some gamblers have started using a loophole in state law to play cards for money at so-called card clubs, such as Texas Card House.
In 2015, Austin-born Texas hold'em poker player Sam von Kennel noticed a legal technicality that would allow him to open a gambling establishment. According to state law, gambling houses can operate as long as they don't take a percentage of the pot. Von Kennel had an idea. Instead of taking a cut of the pot, he would charge membership dues and hourly or half-hourly fees for players to participate in a game. Based on his idea, von Kennel opened Post Oak in Houston, the first private social card club in Texas. Since then, about 30 other membership-only card clubs have sprung up around the state, he says.
On a typical weekend, Texas Card House hosts as many as 100 members at a time — a mostly male crowd that is diverse in ethnicity and age. Some poker games, the ones popular among regulars, have a buy-in of $300 and a potential payout of a few thousand dollars. Lower-stakes games have buy-ins as small as $40.
States that allow gambling still make a killing off casinos compared to the card houses in Texas. For example, Louisiana and Oklahoma annually average $2.4 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively, according to state revenue reports.
A tournament takes place at Texas Card House in Austin on March 2, 2019. Sloto legends casino. Brittany Mendez/Reporting Texas
Although Texas poker rooms operate in a legal gray area, there is precedent for them elsewhere. South park casino. California card houses that operate the same way are legally recognized by the state. Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Montana and Washington also have card houses, but no other states do, according to the American Gaming Association's 2018 State of the States report.
Not everyone agrees that membership-based gambling house are legal.
One of the naysayers is Rob Kohler, a consultant and lobbyist for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
'It would require a constitutional amendment to make commercial gambling legal in Texas,' Kohler said. 'Private home gambling is legal, but these poker rooms are not that. They are merely hiding as a private establishment, but in reality they are commercial.'
Rodger Weems, chairman of Texans Against Gambling, argued in a 2018 Baptist Standard article that card houses run afoul of the law. According to Texans Against Gambling's website, its mission is to 'Improve the lives of people by freeing them from the lower standard of living, exploitation, and fraud that commercial gambling spreads.'
Justin Northcutt, co-owner of the Texas Card House, says Kohler and Weems are playing a bad hand.
'We work very closely with state and local officials and law enforcement to make sure they know how we do business,' Northcutt said. The business pays sales taxes, payroll taxes and its share of property taxes, he said. Northcutt declined to say how much it pays.
'It's not a dark, hidden, dangerous underground place,' he said.
The appeal of membership-based card houses isn't gambling, but the skill and challenge of poker, he added.
Poker dealer Delia Atwood collects poker chips at her table during a tournament for the Social Card Clubs of Texas, a non-profit formed in 2018 for social clubs and card playing enthusiasts, at the Texas Card House in Austin on March 2, 2019. Brittany Mendez/Reporting Texas
Mike Robinson, a Wesleyan University psychology professor, has been studying gambling addiction for a decade and a half through experiments on rodents.
'We haven't gotten the rodents to play poker, but the idea is the same,' Robinson said. Chumba casino complaints. Success in gambling — winning or almost winning a hand in a poker game, for example — activates the brain's reward system, and addicts keep gambling in an attempt to reactivate those pathways.
States Where Raffles Are Legal
Texas Card House revokes or bans members that show gambling addiction or bad behavior, Northcutt said, and the business is a part of the Social Card Clubs of Texas, a non-profit formed in 2018 that seeks to promote responsible card playing and create better communities.
Mike Robinson, a Wesleyan University psychology professor, has been studying gambling addiction for a decade and a half through experiments on rodents.
'We haven't gotten the rodents to play poker, but the idea is the same,' Robinson said. Chumba casino complaints. Success in gambling — winning or almost winning a hand in a poker game, for example — activates the brain's reward system, and addicts keep gambling in an attempt to reactivate those pathways.
States Where Raffles Are Legal
Texas Card House revokes or bans members that show gambling addiction or bad behavior, Northcutt said, and the business is a part of the Social Card Clubs of Texas, a non-profit formed in 2018 that seeks to promote responsible card playing and create better communities.
Kohler, of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, doubts the validity of these claims. He and the Christian Life Commission want to explicitly outlaw card houses, but since the Attorney General's Office has refused to offer an opinion on the matter, the fate of these establishments is in the hands of local law enforcement.
Law enforcement across the state has been mostly tolerant, but in 2017, CJ's Card Room in Dallas was raided by police and effectively shut down. Anti-gambling proponents such as Texas Against Gambling have called for law enforcement to continue raids.
Will said the risk of a police raid doesn't bother him. 'I don't think most people will either,' he said. 'It won't matter because people will still find a way to play.'
Are House Raffles Legal In My State?
Are Online Raffles Legal In Texas
House raffles have generated plenty of interest in recent years from frustrated property owners as well as those looking for home bargains.A house raffle is exactly as it sounds: a property fails to sell so the owner puts the home up as a prize to be randomly distributed in a raffle.
Each interested party buys a raffle ticket, similar to one purchased at a carnival or church fair.The logic in selling a home in this manner is it has the potential to elevate the price for a home that doesn't have any bids or merely has a few unflattering bids.The question is whether house raffles are legal. The answer depends on whereyou are located and the circumstances of your unique situation.
The Legality of House Raffles
Are Online Raffles Legal In Texas
House raffle laws differ by state.There are some specific circumstances in which it is legal to sell a home through a house raffle.However, for the most part, using a raffle or lottery to sell a home is illegal across the majority of the country.The logic in making house raffles illegal is raffling off a home is considered a form of gambling.
There are strict rules and regulations as to how gambling can be conducted in each unique state.Furthermore, if you live in a state where it is legal to hold a housing lottery or raffle, the property can only be raffled off by way of a certain type of group such as a non-profit organization.This organization receives a portion of the proceeds.
Texas Charitable Raffle Law
There are specific state laws that apply to house raffles.As an example, the property owner will likely be forced to keep a detailed record of every raffle ticket holder's name and information.Some states such as Texas require the property owner to return the cost of the raffle tickets to the entrants if the proceeds of the raffle did not amount to that necessary to pay the debt on the home.
States like Maryland allow house raffles if a nonprofit organization is involved yet the homeowner is not provided with any more than the property's fair market value.This value is typically determined by a state-approved appraiser in the first three months of the raffle.This means even a popular raffle will still result in a limited amount of money for the homeowner.
The Downside to House Raffles
Even if someone with considerable interest in the property wins the raffle, he or she is still on the line for ongoing expenses in the form of property taxes, maintenance and other costs.Furthermore, some homes listed in house raffles are not available for viewing in an open house.In some house raffles, interested parties are limited to viewing pictures of the interior and exterior.
Are 50/50 Raffles Legal In Texas
From the seller's perspective, a house raffle is a last resort as there is no guarantee a substantial number of raffle tickets will be sold.As noted above, house raffles are illegal in nearly every state so those who take this path run the risk of breaking the law.It is also important to note the homeowner might end up with less money stemming from a raffle than possible with a traditional sale through the market due to lack of interest, limited viewings/photographs or local real estate trends.
