Draconian Maryland gambling laws are set to change allowing people the opportunity to play poker for money in the sanctity of their homes under certain restrictions.
America confuses me more than a seahorse.
In the summer, I was in that great country readying to attend my first Burning Man festival. My bike rack adaptor didn’t fit. I drove to Walmart to pick up a new one. I couldn’t find one. However, I did find a broad range of guns and rifles. They were on the same floor as the children’s toy section.
And yet, if you decide to break open a plastic bag of coppers with your grandparents, and play a game of poker across the kitchen table, you can face a year in jail, and be hit with a $1,000 fine. Playing poker in your home is illegal in Maryland.
Now, of course, that’s never going to happen. What law enforcement agency in their right mind would waste their time breaking up home games and sending people to jail?
However, that hasn’t stopped Maryland lawmakers drafting together legislation to change those draconian and stupid laws. Last week, a bill sponsored by Montgomery County Democrat Kirill Reznick cleared Maryland’s House of Delegates by a vote of 139 – 0.
Listen to this.
You’ll love it.
The new laws will allow people to play home games as long as they are only held once per week. I know crazy right. It gets better. You have to be aged 21 or over to play, you can’t advertise the game, you can’t take a rake, and players competing have to have a pre-existing social relationship.
When it comes to the amounts you are allowed to play, the combined total cash amount on the table in a 24-hour period can be no more than $500. Reznik told Card Player magazine that he proposed $2,000, but his fellow chieftains wanted it reduced.
When talking to the Baltimore Sun about the old laws, Reznick said, “It’s rarely enforced, and it’s a complete waste of police resources and time {…} I imagine police have better things to do.”
Funny, I was thinking the same thing about politicians.
