Boston Globe
Ten days before the Methuen Youth Basketball league was set to hold a poker tournament last month, Tom Torrisi bumped into a police officer who had reviewed his application for a gambling permit. There may be a problem, the officer said. Was Torrisi planning to give away more than $25 cash to the winner?
Of course, Torrisi said. It's a poker tournament just like all the other poker tournaments in the state. The bigger the pot, the bigger the crowd.
Well, that's a problem, the officer said. Big cash pots are against the law.
Unbeknownst to Torrisi and the organizers of dozens of other poker tournaments taking place around the state every weekend with cash pots in the thousands of dollars, it is illegal in Massachusetts for prizes to exceed $25 cash. The penalty: $1,000 fine or up to a year in the state penitentiary.
''I can't speak for what's happening in other towns, but as far as I'm concerned, there's a law and people should be following it," said Methuen Police Captain Kathy LaVigne, who is responsible for enforcement in Methuen.
The law governing charity poker tournaments has only recently come under scrutiny as the popularity of the game has soared. That scrutiny has prompted dozens of calls to the state attorney general's office -- not only in Massachusetts, but to AG offices around the country where antiquated laws make enforcement confusing.
The response in Massachusetts: ''Our office is in the process of putting together guidelines for charities to better explain how these games can be run within the confines of the law," said Sarah Nathan, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.
In Methuen, Torrisi scrambled and changed the pot for his Texas Hold 'Em
tournament from cash to American Express gift cards but in doing so the bloom came off the rose. He was expecting 150 to 200 players and was hoping to raise $10,000 for the league. Instead the cancellations started coming in fast and furious, only 65 people showed up for the tournament, and the league grossed only a couple thousand dollars.
''We definitely didn't do as well as we should have," Torrisi said.
Torrisi's real problem was holding the tournament in Methuen, which is one of the few communities that appears to be enforcing the law. The result: Dozens of charitable poker tournaments held around the state each month are illegal, making scofflaws out of some very prestigious nonprofits and fraternal and religious organizations.
As things now stand, tournament organizers get a permit from the clerk in the city or town where they want to hold the game. The police run a background check, and the organizers fill out an application and agree to pay 5 percent of the proceeds of the tournament to the state, said Billy Maloney, city clerk in Lawrence.
But in Lawrence and most other communities, no one checks up on the tournaments after the organizers pass the background checks and are deemed to be from legitimate charitable organizations.
''It's sort of self-policing," Maloney said. ''There are reporting requirements, but does anyone check them? I have no idea."
The Massachusetts Motorcycle Association, a nonprofit organization that conducts education campaigns about motorcycling, held a Texas Hold 'Em tournament March 20 at the Brewery Exchange in Lowell. It's one of many such tournaments held there in the last several months. The top cash prize for the MMA tournament: $1,500.
''We got a permit through the [city of Lowell], submitted an official application, and no one asked us" about the prize money, said Kevin Griffin, chairman of the organization. ''You're the only person I've heard this from."
Griffin continued: ''I know gambling is a hot-button issue in Massachusetts, but we're doing similar things that the lottery claims to be doing. We're an educational and charitable organization, and we're doing this to benefit the citizens of Massachusetts."
After conducting a little investigation, Torrisi learned the law as written was meant for casino nights. The logic is that if a player could lose more than $25 per hand, over the course of a night, he or she could end up in serious debt.
But the poker tournaments that have become the rage across the country over the past three years don't work like that. Players buy into a tournament at the beginning of the night and typically, that's their entire exposure.
Still, hefty prizes are considered illegal -- as are players wagering against one another, a central ingredient in poker.
''As the law is written today it wasn't intended to deal with Texas Hold 'Em," Torrisi said.
In the meantime, charities aware of their legal liability are scrambling. Some simply change winnings from cash to prizes like appliances or vacations -- which are legal regardless of their value but don't seem to have the same draw.
Others, like The Key Program in Lawrence, a nonprofit organization that works with troubled children across New England, are canceling tournaments.
The Key Program was planning a poker tournament next month, but when a director was informed of the law -- which he said he had been unaware of -- he canceled the event.
''We have the permits, but even if there is a wink and a nod we're not comfortable doing that now that we're informed," said Joel Tragash, a director of operations.
The popularity of poker tournaments grew when professional tournaments began to be broadcast on television.
Ashley Adams, an author who has written extensively about poker, said that three years ago there were maybe three or four private games going on any given weekend around Boston. Now he puts that number upwards of three or four hundred.
''It's exploded," he said. ''An increase of at least 100-fold."
Poker tournaments have replaced casino nights as cash cows for charities. A well-run tournament will attract up to 200 players, each of whom pays a $100 entrance fee, said Mike Sheehy, whose company, Capone Poker Tables, provides supplies for tournaments. A tournament of that size can offer pots of $5,000 for the first-place player and a few thousand for the second and third and still generate $10,000 for the charity after expenses.
The idea that those pots are illegal -- even though half the proceeds go to charity -- infuriates Adams.
''That you can go to any convenience store and spend thousands of dollars on Keno and scratch tickets but you're not allowed to donate to charity by playing poker strikes me as the highest form of hypocrisy," he said.
The confusion around the law hasn't stopped that many tournaments, but Sheehy is fearful that it could.
''There aren't that many problems, but there's always a buzz around them that something could happen," Sheehy said.
Eventually, the law needs to be changed to catch up with the game, Torrisi said.
''The state is living in the past," he said. " I don't think these tournaments are going anywhere anytime soon.
