South Carolina Struggles in Defining Gambling in Poker Case
After the state legislature refused to loosen gaming laws and a court found home poker players guilty of illegal gambling, lawyers for the poker players say the state has no precise definition of gambling, leaving residents to guess at what's legal. But state officials say they know gambling when they see it, and discretion is important when laws by necessity leave decisions to police and prosecutors.
Attorneys for the convicted poker players are asking a state court to set aside their earlier case, claiming there was no way for the players to know if they were illegally gambling because of a poorly worded state law. Judge Markley Dennis is being asked to reverse the previous decision, in which a Mount Pleasant court found a game at a private house broke the law.
Prosecutors say the house game was advertised on the Internet, and took a rake, making it more than a simple house game. Mount Pleasant public prosecutor Ira Grossman says the law is defined well enough, and that law enforcement must have some room for discretion.
"If an essential element of a crime is not defined, then how could a person know if they are violating it or not?" replied the poker players' attorney, Jeff Phillips. He argued there is no distinction under the law to separate an organized poker game from a few old ladies playing bridge for change.
Dennis did not rule on the arguments, preferring to take time to study the many legal issues involved.
