Curious as to peoples opinions on something

[ftpjesus]

As we all know SWC was somewhat popular with some folks however the whole direct gambling thing was an issue and landed Micon with a felony gambling charge in NV.. I'm wondering if a poker site setup to allow people to buy chips and play online and say they could trade chips for gift cards and merchandise (such that could be obtained from say a discount shopping warehouse or like Amazon) would fit within the realm of legality as some skirt the laws as falling under sweepstakes rules in various states... As they would technically be able to obtain physical merchandise I would think it would be legal however one could make the argument that technically playing poker online and somebody winning those chips would amount to winning something of value and thus would be gambling.. Somebody came to me with the idea and I thought I would bounce it off some folks in here vs the brainless twine that inhabits 2+2 on most days.

[Hockey Guy]

Totally illegal the way the laws are written.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

As we all know SWC was somewhat popular with some folks however the whole direct gambling thing was an issue and landed Micon with a felony gambling charge in NV.. I'm wondering if a poker site setup to allow people to buy chips and play online and say they could trade chips for gift cards and merchandise (such that could be obtained from say a discount shopping warehouse or like Amazon) would fit within the realm of legality as some skirt the laws as falling under sweepstakes rules in various states... As they would technically be able to obtain physical merchandise I would think it would be legal however one could make the argument that technically playing poker online and somebody winning those chips would amount to winning something of value and thus would be gambling.. Somebody came to me with the idea and I thought I would bounce it off some folks in here vs the brainless twine that inhabits 2+2 on most days.

theres your problem right there...

if I'm remembering correctly US players were asking Somerville to do some homegame on stars.net that gave out runitup gear for prizes, but pretty sure he said he couldn't do that because that would be considered "gambling" since somebody would be winning something of value...

[ftpjesus]

As we all know SWC was somewhat popular with some folks however the whole direct gambling thing was an issue and landed Micon with a felony gambling charge in NV.. I'm wondering if a poker site setup to allow people to buy chips and play online and say they could trade chips for gift cards and merchandise (such that could be obtained from say a discount shopping warehouse or like Amazon) would fit within the realm of legality as some skirt the laws as falling under sweepstakes rules in various states... As they would technically be able to obtain physical merchandise I would think it would be legal however one could make the argument that technically playing poker online and somebody winning those chips would amount to winning something of value and thus would be gambling.. Somebody came to me with the idea and I thought I would bounce it off some folks in here vs the brainless twine that inhabits 2+2 on most days.

theres your problem right there...

if I'm remembering correctly US players were asking Somerville to do some homegame on stars.net that gave out runitup gear for prizes, but pretty sure he said he couldn't do that because that would be considered "gambling" since somebody would be winning something of value...

Well there has to be some loophole otherwise ClubWpt wouldn't be able to legally function as they do in most states in the US. They give away prizes which includes BIs for WPT Main Event tournaments even month. The question is guess is how to do it in similar fashion as WPT does without running afoul of the law I guess.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

theres your problem right there...

if I'm remembering correctly US players were asking Somerville to do some homegame on stars.net that gave out runitup gear for prizes, but pretty sure he said he couldn't do that because that would be considered "gambling" since somebody would be winning something of value...

Well there has to be some loophole otherwise ClubWpt wouldn't be able to legally function as they do in most states in the US. They give away prizes which includes BIs for WPT Main Event tournaments even month. The question is guess is how to do it in similar fashion as WPT does without running afoul of the law I guess.

Yeah I hear ya...no clue what loophole they exploit...I guess by being a membership site they can give things away to their members...but that's kinda like being a subscriber to a twitch stream and they can't do that shit...if you ever find out what that is post it...I'm curious how they don't run afoul of the "it's unamerican to gamble" shit..:

[Crowe Diddly]

from what I remember, and I didn't understand it fully back at the time anyway, ClubWPT is a membership site. Once you are a member, there are no buy-in fees obv. However, if you are not a member, you could still enter for free, you would just have to send them all your info via snailmail and request your free entries, and they would give you X amount of entries for free. Because of that, they can legitimately claim "No purchase necessary, and any purchase will not increase your odds of winning," same disclaimer as on every McDonalds contest and every other company's contests. Because of that, they are no longer a gambling site, they are a "Sweepstakes" site. Doesn't apply in all states I don't think, but you get the general idea.