What difference does it make what pocket the money comes from? Portland, Oregon resident and well known professional poker player, Annie Duke wanted to organize a Hold’em tournament to raise money for the Portland schools. Annie, the mother of four Portland School students was denied the right to hold the fundraiser event when the Oregon Attorney General’s office refused to sanction the event since it is illegal to hold charity poker tournaments in the state. School officials also declined to allow the tournament since they do not sponsor games of chance. Apparently the PTA could sponsor the games. Looks like some kind of money laundering scheme using the PTA. It’s just another example of the do-gooders trying to make the majority of not-so-do-gooders into upstanding, God fearing citizens. Maybe the motto of the poker police should be, as in the spirit of “To Protect and Serve,” “To Find and Fold.”
Annie found it ironic that the Oregon School Systems accepts more than $500 million from the Oregon state lottery but refuses to take the $25,000 expected to be raised from a charity poker tournament. Apparently many of the parents and grandparents in the area share her feelings and believe that getting together to raise money for the kid’s education while playing a card game is not much of a crime, but rather a good thing. Adding further to the irony of it all, the Oregon lottery can be played on-line. Move to Oregon and go broke gambling on the on-line Oregon lottery. You’ll never have to leave your home until the foreclosure people arrive. Just good, clean fun and legal too!
The Oregon State Legislature will address the issue of charity poker tournaments later this month. Hopefully they will look beyond the cliche ridden dark ages to the benefits of legalizing one of America’s favorite sports. Legal or not tournament poker is here to stay so either enforce the law and then build massive prisons to house all of the card playing law breakers or let the majority rule and legalize the game.
This problem of legal or not is wide spread throughout the country and is certainly not limited to Oregon. In fact, Oregon is one of the states where the citizen appear to have a strong voice in how they are governed and are rather quick to dispel a politician or political group with an agenda that does not include the greater good of the whole. Anyone wanting to contact Annie with some words of support or whatever can do so here.