Gambling News from http://www.charleston.net/
MOUNT PLEASANT - Petitions to change South Carolina's gambling laws have been gaining momentum in the month since 22 poker players were cited during a police raid, according to local card enthusiasts.
A group calling itself SCOPE - the South Carolina Organization of Poker Enthusiasts - considers a current law about "games and betting" archaic. The law was used to ticket players at a Glencoe Street home in the April 12 raid. A petition urging legislators to update the law has gathered several hundred signatures, said John Ridgeway, who runs the Web site, scopeonline.org.
"What we're trying to do is to make it permissible for private citizens to play a card game in their own home," Ridgeway said. "We're not interested in black jack, we're not interested in slot machines, we're not interested in other types of gambling. I don't even play Bingo."
Similar petitions were circulating in Columbia and Greenville before the raid, which inspired Lowcountry enthusiasts to follow suit, he said. The law in question is statute 16-19-40, "Unlawful Games and Betting," which was originally passed in 1802, he said.
Some of those ticketed in the Glencoe Street raid demonstrated on Coleman Boulevard Wednesday afternoon.
Mount Pleasant police said the house was the site of a high-stakes poker parlor that advertised games over the Internet and attracted people from all over the Lowcountry. Police said players paid a $20 "buy-in," with a percentage of proceeds going to the house. Officers spotted 15 to 20 vehicles at the home several days a week, police said.
Several people who received the $267 tickets that night called the police claims exaggerated. They said they were playing a friendly small-stakes game. A court date is scheduled for May 30. |
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