Reddit thread: why is gambling illegal?

[kwansolo]

site with a huge amount of visitors and eyeballs obv. would be good to get some people with a clue about gambling, laws, and rationale to contribute to this thread.

http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikei...bling_illegal/

[repulse]

So, it's my money... I earned it... If I wanna bet my friend that I can get a better 5-card poker hand than he can, who is the government to say I can't do that with my money?

It's at least amusing that, to some extent, the question contains its own answer, at least as far as competitive poker (as distinct from gambling as a whole) is concerned.

[iCdonks]

poker isnt illegal
charging a fee is
entrance fee /sell beer /pay the dealer
fees or rake makes it illegal
for poker site u can play on them BUT they cant put moneys in us banks or
us banks /creddit cards are forbidden to deal with poker moneys
if the sites allow you to play on them they have to BEND THE RULES to allow you to put moneys on the site /thats money landering
they can let you play on them and its ur problom how to put money on them and they can cash out to you its ur problom how to cash the check
the sites dont want the hassle so they say no usa
poker stars allowed it and the BENT THE RULES so usa can play ther and they put moneys in usa banks and made false charges for credit cards so usa players were happy AND see what happened to them
most sites dont want the hassle
us congress says its not illegal to play/ the laws are for banking laws
if u want to do a home game it isnt illegal cept n some states OR if you charge a fee/rake or sell anything that makes moneys cuzz u have the game

[iCdonks]

if the sites allowed you to play there you could actually go to canada or mexico get a credit card there and put money on site and if you cashed out you could go to canada or mexico and cash the check
bbut most sites just dont want the hassle with it/
by law if usa bank or credit cards allowed the sites to cash on or cash out then usa laws say they are money laundering
and that makes unhappy players so most sites just dont allow it

[iCdonks]

u can make a bet with ur friend if u want to but if u charge him a 10% fee/rake then thats illegal

[Lottery Larry]

Originally Posted by iCdonks

poker isnt illegal


us congress says its not illegal to play/ the laws are for banking laws

if u want to do a home game it isnt illegal cept n some states OR if you charge a fee/rake or sell anything that makes moneys cuzz u have the game

Are you referring to state vs. federal laws coverage, for your jurisdiction?

Or, are you attempting a general statement? If the latter... you might want to do a little more research.

[daveh07]

Could you do a not for profit card room and charge rake and put all the money back into the cardroom and sign it as a corporation and before people play they have to sign into the corporation so they are all part of the company?

[TeflonDawg]

i think a similar idea has been brought up before somewhere else on 2+2

[jackaaron2012]

Originally Posted by daveh07

Could you do a not for profit card room and charge rake and put all the money back into the cardroom and sign it as a corporation and before people play they have to sign into the corporation so they are all part of the company?

I don't think you can set up something like a pokerroom as not for profit. I think it has to be specific types of "groups."

A pokerroom would have owners who should benefit from some type of profit.

Under this thinking, for example, I couldn't set up a non for profit T-Shirt seller, or Ice Cream business or something. But, maybe I could set up a water treatment certification group that's non for profit? Or, a neighborhood watch group or something.

This is just my interpretation. I'd love to be wrong about it!