Poker News

In what has been an ongoing battle in the state, Michigan continues to crack down on the multitude of charity poker rooms with a stricter interpretation of the regulations that govern the industry.

According to Melissa Anders of MLive.com, the new crackdown is due to the alleged illegal gambling, liquor law violations and crime that has seen an increase at the charity poker rooms as of late. The people who operate the charity rooms, however, think that the increased scrutiny is due to lobbying from casino interests in the state that believe they are losing revenue to their respective businesses.

Under the current law in Michigan, charity poker rooms can host “millionaire parties” that raise funds for different organizations using poker tournaments and other casino gaming as the focal point. There are approximately 40 of these rooms located around the state, but no new licenses have been issued since the beginning of 2011. The 40 rooms do a great deal of business, according to Anders, bringing in nearly $16 million for 2525 charitable causes in 2012.

Beginning next month, however, the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) will push stricter regulations onto the charity poker rooms. Citing the “lack of internal controls at many events, improper record keeping and non-charitable gaming,” MGCB Executive Director Richard Kalm announced the new guidelines on earlier this week. The guidelines include several new rules that would chop in half what the charitable poker rooms do for an average day.

The new regulations limit each poker room to only three charitable events per day with maximum chip sales of $45,000. In the past, rooms were able to host up to six charitable events with a $90,000 cap on the chip sales. The closing time of the rooms has been moved up to midnight (instead of its original 2AM curfew) and other rules governing tips and the qualifications for charities to be eligible for such “millionaire parties” have been tightened up.

Kalm noted the criminal activity that has occurred at the Michigan charitable poker rooms in just the last three years as another reason for the stricter controls. From 2010 until March 2013, Kalm reported that there were four armed robberies, 47 assaults, three weapons offenses, 72 “disorderly persons” and 11 fraud cases that had occurred at the charity poker businesses. He also pointed out the killing of a man in 2009 who was trying to rob one of the poker rooms in his reasoning for the stricter rules.

Those that work in the charitable poker rooms believe that the moves by the MGCB are a thinly veiled attempt by the state government to put those rooms out of business for the casino interests in the state, however. Anders interviewed Ed Sitek, a dealer with a charity poker room located in Shelby Township, who believes Governor Rick Snyder is behind the efforts to shut the industry down in the state of Michigan because of pressure from the casino industry.

Sitek points out that his employer has a staff of 50 dealers (no numbers were given for other staff) and, if the new regulations are implemented, it would result in half of them losing their jobs and those that remained potentially seeing their hours cut. As to the alleged criminal activity, Sitek notes that the issues reported by Kalm are relatively low for the number of rooms that are in play and that the state isn’t shutting down other businesses because of criminal conduct.

Anders also looks at how the charities will be hurt by the new regulations. She quotes Donna Gartside, the secretary of the Michigan Charitable Gaming Association, as saying, “We’re frustrated, really frustrated, because the regulations are going to put organizations like the veterans and the sports boosters and the Lions Clubs, the Kiwanis, all of those…they’re really going to hinder what they can do with charities.”

Whatever effect the stricter regulations will have on the charitable poker rooms, the battle between those businesses, the casino industry and the state government will continue on for the foreseeable future.

One Comment

  1. Anonymous says:

    b******t….. shady casinos cause more crime then any charity poker room

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