Poker is Legal at This Bar

The Sports Bar and Billiards on the West Side is doing what several other bars in the area are doing – they are offering poker games, and they are legal. It is not legal in the state, only because traditionally people had to pay to enter a poker tournament, so the bars got the idea of offering the tournaments for free, and thus they are legal.

Sports Bar is not the only one, there is also Clicks Billiards, Uncle Paulie’s Club, 915, and Speaking Rock Entertainment Center. They all offer the game for free, and some offer it nightly. They hold Texas Hold’em Tournaments for the mostly young men who come to the bar for the games. With no buy in, and no requirement for their patrons to buy food or drinks, there is no money involved – and that makes them legal, sort of.

There is some money involved, since someone does win money at some point. At Clicks, the bar pays the entry fee for their players, who then have the chance to win $2,000. At 915, players can win cash prizes totaling $300 for the top three players every night of the week. The bars get people in buying drinks and food anyway, and their patrons have the chance at leaving there with more money than they came in with.

The El Paso Police Department keeps an eye on the places, making sure that they are run legally. They say that for gambling to be legal in Texas it must take place in a private place, no one can profit off of the game except for their private winnings, and everyone must have the same chance at winning the game – which only means that each person’s own skill or the amount of luck afforded them are the catalysts that set one player from another. They say that bars are not actually private places, but that does not matter because they are not charging people for coming to the games.

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