City to fundraisers, businesses: Poker is gambling, and gambling is illegal

Recent complaints about poker games are prompting the city of Wichita, law enforcement and other government officials to take a closer look at businesses that market themselves as poker rooms and at charity events that use the pastime to raise cash for causes.

The city said last week that in recent days it had notified at least two local businesses and two facilities it owns that playing poker — including for charitable events — is illegal under state law and city ordinance.

Wichita city attorney and director of law Jennifer Magana said the possibility of unlawful gaming taking place at the two businesses that used the term “poker room” in their names came to the city’s attention when one applied for a new liquor license and the other applied for a renewal.

The two city-owned facilities, the Hyatt Regency Wichita and the Mid-America All-Indian Center, had been set to play host to poker events, city spokesman Ken Evans said.

That included the Susan G. Komen Kansas fundraiser Cards for the Cure, which had been held at the hotel since 2011. Cards for the Cure, which had been scheduled for next Saturday, canceled its three poker tournaments Wednesday after being told the Hyatt could no longer host the event because it violates the state’s gambling law.

An unexpected end to the longtime fundraiser and the sudden focus on businesses that market themselves as so-called poker houses — some of which have been open for years — have some asking why the city is suddenly turning attention toward ending the card game.

“My understanding is that these poker tournaments are fairly common and that it was not a big deal,” Komen Kansas executive director Kirsten Bruce said. She said Cards for the Cure met with the city when the fundraiser started in 2011 to ensure operating it would be OK and the city was on board.

“We have no idea what changed,” Bruce said.

The city and the Wichita Police Department say they’re investigating an influx of poker-related complaints received in the last few weeks and are enforcing the existing bans on gambling. They say right now the focus is on educating the public about what isn’t legal rather than shutting establishments down.

“Poker is illegal under Kansas state law and under city ordinance,” Magana said, adding that a 2015 change to the state gambling statute legalized charitable raffles and bingos but made no exceptions for poker games or tournaments, no matter where or for what reason they are held.

“The ordinance hasn’t changed,” she said. “The state law hasn’t changed.”

“We’re trying to give people a chance to get right with the law,” Wichita police Capt. Kevin Mears said. “We don’t want to come in and just start enforcing it and shutting people down.

“But at the same time, if they don’t adhere to what the state law says, then we will get more progressive.”

What is gambling?

For a game to meet the definition of gambling in Kansas, three criteria must be met: It must be a game of chance, there must be consideration (paying money to participate), and there must be a prize or payout.

Eliminate any one of those elements and there’s no crime, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said.

Currently, gambling that is legal in Kansas includes bingo and instant bingo games and charitable raffles operated by nonprofit organizations; state-owned and operated lotteries and casinos; horse, dog and parimutuel racing at state licensed and regulated facilities; and gambling at tribal casinos.

Forms of gambling that are not legal include commercial gambling, dealing in or possessing gambling devices, installing communication facilities for gamblers and other bingos. Players and businesses hosting games can both be prosecuted.

Bennett said the problem with poker, especially for charity events, is that all three elements needed to meet the state’s definition of gambling are implicit in the game.

Consideration — the element most people cut in other games to avoid meeting the definition of gambling — is especially tricky to eliminate in poker, he said, because it covers a range of actions such as buying into a game, betting and paying a chair rental fee.

The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission on its website also says that paying an entrance fee or cover charge to get into a business or event where the game is being held, even if there’s no other money changing hands, counts as consideration.

“It’s very hard to conceive of a poker game that is not gambling, just by its very nature,” Bennett said.

About the city’s recent enforcement of gambling laws, Bennett said: “Frankly, the attention has been drawn and law enforcement is taking another look.”

Asked why Cards for the Cure poker tournaments have been able to operate without issue in the past, Bennett said: “I think the reality is that no one was complaining. … If the (gambling) law hadn’t changed last year, I don’t think the focus would have been on it.”

Evans, the city spokesman, said the city had to look at businesses and its own facilities after questions were raised about the legality of poker games held in the city. After the city received information that the Cards for the Cure fundraiser may be illegal, he said, it notified the Hyatt.

The hotel, he said, contacted Cards for the Cure, saying it could no longer host the event. The city, he said, didn’t shut down the tournament; rather “we were advising out our operation.” He called the timing unfortunate.

Evans said he did not know what discussions took place between Cards for the Cure and the city when the event started in 2011. But, he said, the onus to make sure an event is operating within the law is on its promoter or manager and not on the city.

Bruce said that after being turned down by the Hyatt, Cards for the Cure approached Park City about hosting the tournament at Hartman Arena but was told authorities might raid the event because it appeared to violate the law. The fundraiser, in its sixth year, was projected to draw about 900 poker players and raise around $50,000 for breast cancer research.

“It really puts us in a bind,” Bruce said about canceling the poker tournaments. “We’re going to be down a considerable amount of money from this fundraiser.”

‘We’re trying to educate’

Mears, the police captain, said so far the Police Department has been trying to contact businesses that might be violating city and state bans on gambling through letters. He said when it comes to businesses, the agency is complaint driven, meaning a business might be in operation for a long time — and might violate the law for a long time — before police find out.

Once a complaint or tip is made, the agency investigates.

Often, he said, when one business is approached about possible wrongdoing, the department learns about other businesses or organizations engaging in similar activities. Then those businesses are investigated, too.

“We are starting to see that there are so many little places that have popped up, we’re trying to educate right now,” Mears said. “We are here to make sure everybody understands the law, and they follow it.”

In letters sent to the two businesses that had applied for liquor licenses earlier this month, the city warned that they must comply with state law and city code on gambling or risk revocation. The city cites “past advertisements and current social media postings” in the letter to one business and local newspaper reports and social media postings in the other as the basis for sending the notices.

Magana said the letters were mailed Jan. 13 along with the approved licenses. So far, she said, no liquor licenses have been denied.

Steve Peters told The Eagle he wasn’t aware of an issue with poker until he noticed a delay in receiving his liquor license for his new business Blarney Stone Irish Pub and Sports Bar and its companion gaming area Chips Poker Room, which is located at 21st and Woodlawn.

He said calls to the city’s licensing department about the holdup were referred to the city’s legal department. There, he said, he was told opening a poker room would be problematic.

Chips, which opened Jan. 8, quickly shut down. Peters said keeping it open wasn’t worth risking the bar’s liquor license.

“We were trying to offer something that was nice and safe and well-run and now we can’t,” he said, adding: “I think that it (poker) is misunderstood, and I believe that that’s a lot of the reason that it’s being villainized.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "City to fundraisers, businesses: Poker is gambling, and gambling is illegal."