Despite this fact, law enforcement use a process called 'civil asset forfeiture' to seize and keep your cash. You do not need to be charged with any crime for this to happen, you must simply be carrying an amount of cash that they deem 'suspicious'. This allows police to then seize your cash and forces you to prove your own innocence to have it returned, which can take months and thousands of dollars in legal fees. Poker players are uniquely at risk given the need to carry enough cash to participate in games.

The Institute for Justice is a non-profit that is working to end civil forfeiture but needs your help to enact legislative change.

Visit endforfeiture.com/cash to sign up and help us end this abusive practice.

Do you have any examples of poker players minding their own business and having the popo steal their bankroll?

Whenever I see a high profile civil forfeiture case, it's some ex-military type who thinks banks will steal his marbles and somehow managed to gather $200k that he keeps in a duffle bag in the trunk of his mid 90s Mustang. Any time there's a video, it's in a desert environment, so probably a border state.

Probably one of those "if you want to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs" rules that does more good than harm at the end of the day.

11 years and only 3 posts is some next-level lurking.

Barter, nga, after selling all you have and giving it to the poor.

No one cares

it's a draconian practice that skirts due process and obviously should be abolished. even in the case we have such practices, the money seized should always be earmarked towards libraries/schools/parks.. instead we get best case police departments buying military equipment, worse case sheriffs buying lake properties for themselves.

Years ago I remember this happened to a H&F regular professional gambler. I am going off of memory, but I think he had like 50K+ in cash/chips confiscated, and it took him months to eventually get it back. I think he was traveling through the south, maybe Georgia?

Yes, here is a prominent example of poker players being targeted for civil forfeiture:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...iture-outrage/

While the large dollar amounts generally grab the headlines, depending on the state, the average forfeiture amounts to several hundred to just over a thousand dollars. This is far less than the legal fees required to challenge the forfeiture, causing most to go uncontested.

Carrying cash is not a crime and you should not be treated as a criminal or forced to prove your own innocence for wanting to play poker. Amending the laws to require the burden of proof shift to the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the money was tied to a criminal act will help protect the innocent.

Fix the system of separating families of immigrants
Raise the minimum wage
Nationalise key industry
Reform police, abolish sheriffs
Reinstitute abortion rights
Abolish the corrupt practice of lobbying
Electoral reform to include reducing the possibility for and effects of gerrymandering, possibly abolishing the electoral college system and ensure total enfranchisement without qualification, including reducing the voting age
Encourage de facto racial and gender equality
Prevent any further manipulation of the local politics of sovereign nations and assassinating political opponents scot free

Let's get those done, and then let's think about stopping the police from stealing from citizens in this particular way.

World peace
End hunger
Reduce global income disparities
Stop pollution
Colonize space to propagate mankind in case meteors

Let's do those, then think about your stuff, and then do something extremely attainable and politically palatable such as "stop police from stealing from citizens"

These days there is absolutely no reason to carry large amounts of cash unless you are involved in crime.

cashapp tho

I mean, I've bought an 8k boat with cash and the seller and I told the DMV that it was a 1,000 transaction, just kidding - bought a pickup truck, 100s of auto part transactions, engine blocks, frames, rear ends, transmissions at junk yards and flea markets and such with cash. Same with selling. I'm sure you can make a case for the legality of it but there are certainly reasons to keep and more appropriately want to keep and use cash for all kinds of things.

And even then, nowadays the smarter criminals are switching to crypto. Erm... so I've heard.

This is the sort of level of dumbf***ery i expect from this forum. Not liking being tracked by banks is not a crime. I play high stakes poker in cash sometimes, is that a crime?

The tax fraud and money laundering is where the crime part comes in.

I bought a piece of equipment very recently for $11K cash, because that's how the seller wanted it.

My single greatest worry was getting pulled over in Alabama.

Not robbed, not losing it at the gas station or in a hotel, not the IRS or why the seller wanted cash, or anything else.
It was cops sopping me me with cash, on my way to buy machinery, and them taking it because even though I had a trailer, even though I had the listing, even though I'm in a related business with licenses and EIN's and business bank accounts and all sorts of credentials.... we allow that.

Why did he want is that way?

How do you ever leave your house with that moon just sitting up there waiting to fall?

I don't know. To my knowledge, cash is still legal tender and its still lawful to use it to buy things without sellers having to state their intentions for payment method preference.
Perhaps he was selling it for cash to generate funds to buy something from another seller of something else who requested cash.

Like, I realize where you're 'at' here, but it is a bit horrifying that we've reached a point in this country where people advocate for that degree of total control over everything people may do for purposes of harvesting tax, stopping some theoretical crime, etc.

I wonder what makes a man think like that. Seriously. They always wind up in government work, they're incapable of creating anything new.
Very specific sort.

This isn't even that surprising.

Cashier's checks and money orders are sadly very easy to fake. Checks in general are a bit sketchy for unknown parties. In terms of irreversible transactions you pretty much only have cash and wire transfer.

Because cash payment, assuming the bills are legit is simple and immediate. It's idiotic in certain professions to cut checks when you're in one of many factions of work in where you're consistently purchasing items from anywhere between $1-20k from all kind of distributors and sellers.

This comment just tells me that you are not a winning poker player.

Do you think higher stakes poker players should have to go to the bank every day, wait in line inside (you can't get more than $1K out of an ATM), then at the end of the day go back to the bank to deposit it? (You may be able to deposit at your ATM, if there is one of your home back nearby, but depositing outdoors late at night does not feel safe to me.)

Nor acquainted with any advantage gamblers outside of poker.

This comment tells me you've never heard of internet poker

This comment tells me you don't understand the debate going on.

Reminds me of the time Ed Reed had 50k stolen out of his car. Most of the comments didn't even mention that grand larceny occurred. "Why does anyone need 50k in cash? Unless it was something, you know... hurr hurr hurr" (dog whistles and overtones careening all around).

A person can carry as much cash as possible on their person whenever they want. It's up to the person to be responsible for it, but it's not illegal.

I understand the debate just fine. Chillrob said he wasn't a winning player but plenty of winning players never carry cash because they play for 1's and 0's.