Poker News

Why play in Charity Poker Events?

Ashley Adams explains… Why Play in Charity Poker Events?

I find my inspiration for poker articles comes in the most interesting places these days. I was attending my weekly class in Jewish Studies. The teacher focused it on a quote by the ancient Jewish sage, Rabbi Hillel.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?”

The Judaica class was devoted to Jewish law and Jewish ethics - a fascinating topic to be sure. But my mind started to wander toward poker, as it too often does these days. It got me to thinking that this was a wonderful way of looking at my own connection to our great game.

The first part sentence in this quote applies easily to poker players.”If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” surely is addressed to all of us who play to win. And it inspires the thousands of articles in this publication. We must be first and foremost concerned about our own game, learning proper strategy and the self discipline sufficient to win. At the poker table, surely, we are our own best advocate. No teamwork is allowed. If we don’t look after our chips, after all, who will?

The second sentence in the quote is the focus of this article, however.”If I am not for others, what am I?” Even as we scoop in our chips, out think our opponents, look around for good games, and make deposits into our bulging poker accounts, I believe we have some obligation to consider the rest of the world and do something for other people. There can be more to making money at poker for me - and, I suspect, for many of you, than just enriching myself. I have found that doing good while doing well has enriched my soul. It has meant very little sacrifice on my part - and there is a fun way to do it…

A recent survey concluded that 60 million new poker players have been created by the televising of poker events. Add this to the 40 million poker players who already played regularly before this recent surge and you have 100 million of us! Assume a modest $100 wagered in poker games per player each month, on average, and you have more than 100 billion dollars a year wagered at poker. That’s a whole mess of money.

Just one percent of that money - a tenth of a tenth - is $1 billion dollars. That’s a hefty chunk of change - and yet individually it amounts to one modest $1 toke a month. That’s small change, truly. Yet aggregately, it’s surely enough to do something good for the world and good for poker.

Fortunately, there is a wonderful way of combining both of these interests into one activity. Specifically, I’m referring to charity poker tournaments. They are widespread these days and they come in many different varieties. Some are more”charitable” than others. It’s worth taking a closer look at them to see how and whether you might want to get involved.

They fall, generally, into three categories. First is the event that is purely for charity. The Multiple Sclerosis Charity, for example, benefits from one of these annually. They run an event in Port Chester, New York that fits this bill. The organizers of the event give their time freely - without any compensation. Businesses donate prizes. People compete for these prizes. Hardly anything is spent on the event itself and the charity, in this case M.S., makes nearly all of the money used for buy-ins, rebuys, add-ons, as well as money from raffles and auctions held the day of the event. Last year, for example, they raised nearly $20,000 for their cause.

Other charity tournaments are really events run by a for-profit company in the name of a charity - a different charity for every event that they run. These are much closer to the Las Vegas nights that have sprung up in many parts of the country. A poker tournament operator pays the charity”sponsoring” the event some percentage of the take. In exchange, this company promotes the event, takes in the money, hires the dealers, brings in the table and, in essence, runs a poker room for the evening. The prizesare in cash but represent a relatively small percentage of the prize pool - usually significantly less than 50% of all the money taken in with the initial buy in and rebuys and add ons. The charity may make between 20% and 50% of the profit for the night with the company that actually runs the tournament making the rest. So the charity benefits, but private tournament operators benefit even more.

Finally, there is a blend of these two types of charity poker tournaments. The charity may organize the tournament itself, publicizing it, taking in the money, and having players deal themselves on banquet tables in a hall rented by the charity, but they bring in and pay for an experienced tournament host to set the structure, run the game, consolidate the tables when players get knocked out, announce the changes in the blinds and antes, and settle all disputes as they develop - perhaps beginning with a brief tutorial on no limit hold em. The tournament host’s pay is fixed and the charity makes all of the profit for the event after expenses. These events pay cash prizes as well - usually about 50% of all the money taken in buy-ins, rebuys and add-ons if they have them.

Where I live, in Boston, Massachusetts, tournaments of all three varieties have become increasingly popular. There are at least four or fiveevery week in the Greater Boston area, and they run in restaurants, bars, Boys and Girls Clubs, churches, synagogues and just about any other place that can accommodate a dozen tables or so. . The buy-ins range from $50 to $500. Charities earn anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000 per event for their efforts.

The popularity has raised the question of legality - both here and in other states.

Unfortunately, the laws are very vague and they vary from state to state. In some places, even tournaments with prizes as low in value as hats and shirts have been prohibited. In other places, tournaments are allowed to operate as long as the money generated from them goes in large share to a legitimate charity. In Massachusetts, for example, local police chief’s have been given wide latitude in what games they’ll permit - and have the discretion to shut down a game that doesn’ meet with their approval.

Until state legislatures write clarifying legislation that defines what is a legal charity tournament and what is considered unlawful gaming, the legal status of charity tournaments will remain in limbo. This is too bad. Legitimate charities, with little experience in poker tournaments, will be less inclined to take advantage of the surge in poker interestswhile the for-profit event organizers will continue to proliferate and corner the poker market. They have the resources to withstand an occasional bust - but the bona fide charity often does not.

One billion dollars is an awful lot of money that could be pumped into charity coffers given the right kind of enabling legislation. This brings to mind the last line in this famous Hillel quotation.“If not now, when?” I can’t think of any good reason to wait. I’m contacting my state reps and senators as this goes to print. Maybe you want to do the same thing where you live. After all, a billion dollars for charity would go a long way toward making our world a better place while improving the image of the game we love.

[Editors Note: You can add your charity poker event to our charity tournament database.]

Filed under: Poker News