For years the Nutz Poker League, along with several competitors, has been running free tournaments at bars and restaurants in the Tampa Bay area. It makes money by taking a cut of what players spend on food and drinks. The players accumulate points based on their spending as well as their poker performance and can ultimately win prizes such as vacations, cruises, laptops, cameras, and \u201cvarious unique poker gifts.\u201d Twice a year the winner of the league\u2019s \u201cgrand championship\u201d receives \u201ca trip to Las Vegas and a Buy In to The World Series of Poker.\u201d Since there is no fee to play and no money is wagered on the games, Nutz owner Richard Danford believed he was complying with Florida\u2019s gambling laws. Evidently the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco disagreed. It expressed this disagreement by sending its agents, assisted by black-masked local police officers \u201cin full riot gear\u201d with \u201cweapons drawn,\u201d to raid a Texas Hold \u2018Em tournament at Louie\u2019s Grill and Sports Bar in Largo the Saturday before last. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Danford and five of his employees \u201cwere arrested, accused of working for a gambling house,\u201d while \u201cthe restaurant owner was charged with keeping a gambling house.\u201d Those are third-degree felonies, punishable by a $5,000 fine and up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n
Pinellas-Pasco Assistant State Attorney Joshua Riba told the Times that Florida\u2019s definition of gambling, rather counterintuitively, does not require betting. \u201cThe statute itself does not require anybody to ante in,\u201d Riba says. \u201cIf they are playing cards, and they have an opportunity to win something of value, then they are technically violating this particular gambling statute.\u201d In fact, the offense of keeping a gambling house is defined as, among other things, letting people use a place \u201cto play for money or other valuable thing at any game whatever, whether heretofore prohibited or not.\u201d On its face, this so-called crime is not limited to games of chance; a Scrabble tournament with a cash prize or a trivia contest that gives a bar tab to the winning team seemingly would qualify. The Times notes that Florida has an exception for private \u201cpenny-ante games,\u201d but it does not apply to public tournaments\u2014even, according to state regulators, if the amount of money wagered is zero.<\/p>\n