Growing popularity of Texas Hold 'Em keeps gambling czar busy

The state's gambling czar is about as busy these days as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas.

Clyde E. Cristman, director of the Department of Charitable Gaming, said yesterday that the growing popularity of a televised poker game, Texas Hold 'Em, has prompted numerous complaints and inquiries to his office.

Acting on a complaint from his charitable gaming department, the Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney shut down a monthly poker tournament last week at a Fraternal Order of Police lodge.

Cristman said his department has two active investigations under way and is reviewing "15 or so complaints" about possible gambling activity that could fall under the department's jurisdiction.


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Are games legal?
In the meantime, the department's phone has been ringing off the hook with inquiries about whether poker games at home are legal, he said.

They are, as long as the host doesn't get a cut of the proceeds.

The outcry about poker has already caught the attention of a Virginia politician.

Del. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax (City), who wants to be lieutenant governor, said Thursday he will introduce a bill in the 2005 General Assembly to permit card games hosted by private clubs, such as the FOP lodge.

"I rarely play poker myself, but this is really an issue of fairness," Petersen said in a press release. "If people in a private association or club want to organize a card game, they should be allowed to do so."

Skill or luck?
Petersen is one of four Democrats seeking the nomination to run for lieutenant governor next year.

The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has reported that the FOP tournament in Virginia Beach on Bird Neck Road featured as many as 150 participants and had a $4,500 pot. People paid to play.

A Moose Lodge game in the Roanoke area was recently raided by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which could revoke the club's liquor license.

Cristman said he recognizes that card games go on all the time in private clubs, but that doesn't make them legal.

The state law prohibits all gambling except for some narrowly drawn exceptions, Crist- man said. These are gambling in a private residence, the state-run lottery, pari-mutuel betting and the charitable bingo and raffles games licensed by the charitable gaming department.

Otherwise, games that are settled by chance, while including a bet and a prize, are illegal.

Petersen said the law also permits "contests of speed or skill." Poker is a game of skill, "which is probably why I don't play it very well," he said.

But Cristman said, even when a player is good at bluffing, or when he is good at reading the cards, winning still is determined by luck.

Texas Hold 'Em tournaments, shown on ESPN and other cable channels, have drawn a large following. In the game, two cards are dealt down to each player, then five cards are dealt up. Betting begins to take place after the first two cards are dealt.

Source: Tyler Whitley, Times-Dispatch