The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled against the state’s commercial poker rooms, with a three-judge panel ruling that a poker club was violating the state’s gaming laws when it tried to operate within the Oregon Racing Inc.’s Portland Raceway.
The ruling is also a warning to about 20 poker clubs in the state whose business model was similar to that named in the lawsuit. This is a continuation of a four year investigation of the pokers games by the Oregon Lottery, which first ruled that the games were illegal at the same time it revoked the raceway’s license to operate Video Lottery Terminals and hauled off the machines.
Portland Raceway appealed and continued its battle despite closing at the end of 2019 and tearing down the raceway two months later.
The appeals court confirmed that the $15 door fee the poker room charged was illegal house income since the facility operated under the state’s charitable gambling law. It also found that the poker room exchanged chips for money, acting as an illegal bank.
The ruling stated: “We agree with the Lottery’s conclusion that Oregon Raceway’s practice of exchanging players’ money for chips and holding and safeguarding players’ money during gameplay meant that ORI was acting as a ‘house bank.’ ”
The card clubs are also feeling hemmed in by efforts by some lawmakers‑heavily lobbied by tribal interests— to further limit the activities permitted under the state’s charitable gaming laws.
One of several gaming tribes that offer poker, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, filed a friend of the court brief against the poker rooms in the appeal.
