Colorado gambling

There was an interesting piece in today’s Denver Post about the confused legal status of gambling in Colorado:

Robert Brown, agent-in-charge of Gaming/Complex Crimes at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, wants to make sure Denverites do not develop an irrational fear regarding the “complex” laws governing gambling.

In fact, Brown goes out of his way to detail the way we can gamble legally.

First, gamble with people you have a social relationship with. What exactly is a social relationship? Does it mean there’s been an exchange of bodily fluids?

“You and four co-workers … or several members of your church, for example, that’s the kind of social relationship we’re talking about,” explains Brown. “The gambling has to be incidental. It’s important that you don’t come together for the purposes of gambling, that you know each other for other reasons.”

More important, according to Brown, is that authorities typically won’t interfere with commonplace, low-grade gambling. “The Colorado Bureau of Investigation wouldn’t look at it. Nobody would look at it,” he claims.

Brown says that it’s professional gambling that brings the heat - “gambling that is aiding or inducing another to gamble and deriving a profit there from.”

Wanna bet gambling can be legal?

There’s a lot more to the article, including a detailed rundown of how to run a legal poker tournament (bascially, don’t charge anything).

If you’re curious, here’s the Colorado Attorney General’s FAQ for illegal gambling.

This is long overdue, judging from the calls I get from people who want to know if poker, etc, is legal in their state. I usually advise them to check with their state AG’s office.