If you pay attention to poker new happening around the country you may have recently seen that a group of people in South Carolina were charged with misdemeanors and fined. If you had not heard about it you might be wondering what disgusting thing this group of people did? They were playing a home game of poker.

The raid on the players was done on April 4^th and ensnared around 27 players. The search by police was performed with a search warrant, supposedly after a 10 month long investigation. Notably, the owners of the home said they have only been holding the poker game for 8 months.  It was reported that approximately $40,000 was seized from the players. Some of the players charged and fined have decided that enough is enough. They have requested a trial by jury and will bring their case to court. Now that we have some background on what happened we can further ask the question, what law were they breaking?

I am not an expert in criminal law, nor am I licensed to practice law in South Carolina, but just looking at some of the state statutes we can get an idea of what laws the police were enforcing. Section 16-19-40 covers unlawful games and gambling. Essentially this law prohibits any type of gaming anywhere. It does not matter if you are playing craps, blackjack or playing poker, you simply cannot do it without violating this law. If you are a player the potential punishment is a jail term not to exceed 30 days or a fine not over one hundred dollars. However if you are the home owner where the game takes place the penalty is much more sever. You may be imprisoned for a period up to 12 months and pay a fine not to exceed $2,000 for each and every offense. Depending on how many offenses you are charged with, you can see how the penalties stack up quickly. This reflects the state legislature’s intent to remove any place where someone can play and it recognizes that people who host the games may charge a fee or rake for players thereby deriving benefit from players. In addition to charges stemming from merely hosting the game, home owners face issues if they have a poker table. Under 16-19-50 no one is allowed to set up, keep, or use a gaming table. The fine for having a gaming table ranges from $200 to $500 dollars.

Lastly, some of you may be wondering if the police can really seize the $40,000 from players. The South Carolina legislature allowed for the seizure and forfeiture in provision 16-19-80. Each and every amount of money that is bet in any prohibited game is forfeited.

Some poker players will be taking their case to a jury. If they are able to find a sympathetic jury, or one who believes the punishment does not fit the crime, they might win. Players will be watching around the nation, and so will I.