Recently the home game I was playing in was greeted with a warm welcome instructions of "GET YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD" while large men with machine guns drawn stormed into the room. The vice had come and raided our game.

We were doing no illegal activities whatsoever. The game had no rake, no food/beverages being sold, not hosted in a business, and was competed on equal terms. Our game fell under the state of Hawaii law of "Social Gambling" 712-1231.

We were arrested, held in jail overnight, booked, charged with "gambling" and recently our names and pictures were featured all over the state of Hawaii like we are criminals. When trying to explain to the police that our game was legal, all we were met with is an insistence that our game was raked and was illegal.

All our the money on the table and in our pockets/bags were seized and is lost forever. The media coverage has basically portrayed us as criminals in the same class as any other murderer, drug lord, or any other criminal.

All of this over a case of guys getting together and playing a $1-$2 weekly home game. I am pleading with the poker community to please share some advice and help us!

http://mauinow.com/2012/08/22/9-arre...gambling-raid/

I guess police going after trivial "crimes" isn't limited to Southern California.

This is what our tax money is used for. To micro manage every little thing we do. The police force was created to protect us. Who were they protecting here?

Go to Court...

Good luck. USA is a mess.

Unreal....can you imagine the ilegal activities really going on in let's say a 10 mile radius of that game.

As someone who has been raided by police playing poker. I feel your pain. This bearuacrtatic non sense is maddening. Extermely disheartening this goes on.

This makes me so mad. So fked up.

Ridiculous

So typical. .. play in a church next time.

don't forget to tell the judge that poker is not gambling also, its more like chess where you play other opponents and not the house. I hope you will take it to supreme court and prove it, you are NOT GUILTY!

lol bail set @ 400$

The $200 $400 bail limits pretty much tell you how not serious the charges are (in comparison to other crimes, obviously serious to the guys that got screwed). Just a total show by the police since they don't seem very good at catching real criminals.

So who have you rivered for his whole paycheck lately? I'd start there for a snitch. Maybe a cop you didn't know was one who came back for his money!!

Dog will hook you up

I hope you sue them for libel to cover court costs, lost wages and a 1400% profit. Get a good lawyer and good luck man.

"The prosecutor’s office declined to pursue these charges due to lack of evidence, on the scheduled court date of Sept. 25, 2012."

Good to see that it's not just the British Police who are completely useless.

British Police caught playing poker whilst on duty - BBC

Bet the 21 yr old cleaned up in that game. Thx for the pics OP. Gl going forward.

Quite a contrast in our policing priorities...

Met Police Caught Playing Online Poker On Duty

sick stuff

I cannot believe the Amercian public put up with this crap.

Sort it out and stand up to your government man, this should concern all people not just poker players.

The government doesn't mind if you drink yourself to death or smoke yourself to death because they get their cut of the taxes, makes me sick thinking about this.

What is the answer to "Why is poker illegal?"

Because they say so.

Many people are trying to get poker accepted and regulated so we can play without fear of what Melvin Y and his friends faced. Check out the Poker Legislation area here on 2plus2.

So, did everyone get their seized money back?

Was this the one in kihei?????? Bad news

Edit: or Wailuku?

Wailuku. No one got any of the seized money, poker chips, or cards returned.

**** the tweakers, we gotta get the gamblers!

at least they let you keep the.......