Because I'm bored at the moment I'll reply.

I'm very anti-government/police but I also can understand that somethings just are and it doesn't matter if I agree with them or not. If I happen to smoke weed, bang a hooker, do blow, etc I do so knowing that I could be caught and have to face consequences even though I don't agree with the law.

Please go back to posting about drunk sex and rape....

Are you a sovereign citizen?

I was thinking the same but after reviewing some of the threads he created and posting history I think he's just an idiot or a sovereign citizen.

Can anyone else confirm that this game did get raided?

OK, my displeasure and disapproval with this happening originated from the perception that police raided and confiscated money from a "home" poker game; however, looking at it again, it's the "rake" that made it illegal; so if no rake was taken, it would've been OK and legal? I once played in a home game (my friend introduced me to) that took place at a friend's co-worker's house. He took money out of every pot for food and alcohol that he provided.
I quit that game because my friend and I finally figured out that he was taking so much out of every pot that he was going to be a guaranteed winner at every game. The rake was certainly excessive and IMHO criminal. But if the rake is what is illegal, why punish the players in the game? They should arrest the guy who is doing all the raking!

it wud be interesting to know if there were receipts for all the money seized, or only for the poker money...some here have said that it wud be standard procedure for the police to take all money and return it at some point, but if that was the case i think that wud have been at least indicated by an officer.
if they just took it, that is stealing and certainly not ok
also, the notion, as expressed by some, specifically mr beale, that you are pretty much fair game to get robbed or pistol wipped if u happen to take part in a crime such as an illegal poker game is ridiculous - you are a hypocrite if u say "don't be surprised to get punished if u break a law, even if its ridiculous and unreasonable" and at the same time u give the police a carte blanche to use excessive force or even steal, actions certainly not protected by the law.

wahcheck

Your example is not a "raked" game by statute, it's considered a forced donation but the host is making money by spreading it. Any benefit a host receives (outside of winning pots) goes against most State Laws. This would be very seldom enforced anywhere, but is slightly vulnerable , especially if the stakes are high enough. And yes, purely social, unraked games are totally legal in a lot of States. I don't know about Mass. I have been hosting one in Kentucky for seven years now.

Depends on the state, but that is very common. Some states don't even allow unraked games, but most do, iirc.

As a holder of a security clearance, I have to be very careful about that sort of thing, so I always research the laws in any state I get stationed in before I play any games that are not in a regulated cardroom. I've yet to live in a state that allows unregulated raked games.

While I can understand OPs feeling that this "shouldn't" be the law, the idea that thinking that something shouldn't be the law implies that therefore it isn't is just silly.

What the police did was horrendous and has no defense. I don´t care if it´s ¨legal¨ or ¨not¨ it may be legal to rape, it doesn´t make it any less horrendous
But US citizen like to be abused and thus vote and support people that abuse them, so they get what they deserve. (most of them)

LOL Do you really think that the USA is the only place with silly laws or corrupt police and courts? Have you ever been anywhere ??

sorry about the derail sarge

Don't do that.

At this point there seems to be no need to debate this any further. OP is a troll masquerading as an amateur legal scholar.

Did i I state that US was the only place? Plz quote me when i said that.

this is just like if a cop stopped you for jaywalking and took all the cash out of your pockets while he was at it. sure you're "committing a crime" but come the **** on what service are the police providing with these actions?

... civil asset forfeiture as it applies to poker players includes (as so many have cited) cops stopping a car on the road and find poker cash (allegedly) in your possession (sometimes large amounts) and confiscate it......it's all in the same category as just taking your gambling money on the table and out of your wallet.....I hate that this is supposedly a legal thing for the cops to do; maybe you will get the money back.......but only probably after a lot of hassle, and maybe a lot of expense, and possibly you may not even get it back.....

This has been used by quite a few people in this thread to justify compliance.

I disagree with this sentiment.

Police are people, and make mistakes. Just because they did something does not mean they inherently have the right to do it.

I'm referring to the money confiscation itself, not the raid.

Fwiw, the Department of Justice has severely curtailed their asset forfeiture rules. This will change things significantly for a lot of the problem (and it is a problem) but law enforcement can still operate under state law, which I assume differ by state. Hopefully the various states make changes if they have onerous laws.

Hate the laws and the law makers. To think anything and everything can't be taken in a raid is just naive.

Also...wat?

Taking money out of folks (players) wallets and keeping it without arresting them first seems unlikely to me. But I guess anything is possible with some local authorities in some jurisdictions.

Anything is possible is right; it just depends on how honest or dishonest, or corrupt the cops are.....many here try to defend law enforcement because we all know there are good cops out there; unfortunately there are also the other kind....

They may make mistakes but are not punished properly for those mistakes. I think the punishment for police should be twice as harsh as the average citizen.

In a perfect world, yes, that might happen; however, I surmise that some people who become cops get used to the idea that they are just above the law; what with the "professional courtesy" they offer each other, and in any case before any judge, it seems he/she will always favor the cop's testimony over yours, unless you have some iron-clad evidence.
The perception is sometimes the reality too.

If we're going to nit it out, the people of the Commonwealth of MA suffered a tangible loss due to revenues lost from taxing the rake. The commonwealth is supposed to get 5% of the gross rake by law. Has the host been sending that after every session? Didn't think so.

And before you go off on another tangent asking for what other activity requires organizations send a portion of the gross revenues to the commonwealth, don't forget your sales tax. You think businesses don't have to pay that?

As for the cash, they could do a simple calculation of: "So the game has been running for 5 years. It runs 3-4 times a week and about 6 hours each time. So assuming a rake of $3 per hand and 30 hands an hour, that means you owe over $24,000 if you want to make a big deal about this. We'll just keep this cash we have until everything is paid up."

sounds like the cops did you a favor ruining this **** game.

If there's an issue here, it's this: Why was a no-knock warrant issued? Or, if the warrant was a knock and announce warrant, what exigent circumstances permitted the police to break down the door?

No knock warrants are only issued on the sworn assertion that either a knock and announce warrant would endanger the police officers (usually when apprehending known violent criminals, i.e. the guy might have a gun so we need to surprise him before he can get to it), or when knocking and announcing would permit the targets from destroying evidence (think flushing the cocaine down the toilet). Unless this was the Borgata, I doubt the police were thinking anyone was going to flush poker chips down the toilet and surely nobody was thinking the players were going to flush money down the toilet, so unless there was an assertion that the police were in fear of violence (haha) I doubt the get a no-knock warrant.

From what OP describes, I could see a scenario where the police knocked and announced and then perceived a delay in responding to the knock. Sitting back and saying "come in" when the police are there is not complying with the warrant. The delay in responding could mean (to the police) that someone was escaping through the back window, someone was getting a weapon, someone was sweeping up evidence of what was going on, etc. So if it's this, and OP your friend can surely tell you this, it's possible that the police acted within the law.

As far as all of the other amateur lawyering going on here, well, don't quit your day jobs. The game is clearly illegal, the police likely had probable cause to get the warrant and a judge agreed with them, emptying pockets is standard, and money is an instrument of a poker game so it can be seized temporarily for sure and permanently if certain conditions are met.

Whether the police ought to be doing this is also not a terribly difficult question. Nobody ought to have a gripe with the police for enforcing existing laws.

Finally, if you can't figure out how to run a home poker game without running afoul of the law, you're probably not thinking hard enough.