Washington’s Gambling Commission Shuts Down Card Games at Senior Center, Citing Local Ban

In two weeks the Snohomish, Washington, city
council will
consider whether retirees should be allowed to continue playing
penny-ante card games—poker, bridge, and pinochle—at the local
senior center. The games have been a favorite activity at the
Snohomish Senior Center for 25 years. But five years ago, alarmed
at the prospect of for-profit card rooms, the city council passed
an ordinance that bans
games played for money when any “organization, corporation, or
person collects or obtains or charges any percentage of or collects
or obtains any portion of the money or thing of value
wagered or won by any of the players.” That made the games at
the senior center illegal, since each participant pays a
“donation.”
No one noticed that the center had become a den of crime until
someone ratted out the card players to the Washington State
Gambling Commission, which in December ordered them to cease and
desist. In response to the outrage provoked by that command, the
city council last month approved a measure that allows nonprofit
organizations to sponsor money card games until April 30. Now it
has to decide what happens after then.

“We’ve got a big criminal record,” card player Peter Richard

tells KING, the NBC affiliate in Seattle. “18 years of
playing for dimes!” He adds, regarding the gambling commission’s
order, “I thought they were off their nut!” Another player, Bill
Huested, piles on: “If you gave them an IQ test, the
needle wouldn’t move.”

KING reports that the the inadvertent civil disobedience at the
senior center may promote a tolerance of recreational activities
that extends beyond pinochle-playing pensioners:

The city council is now trying to fix the
ordinance—which could end up reopening the door to for-profit card
rooms in Snohomish—the very thing the council was trying to
stop 5 years ago. But the council has since shuffled. Councilman
Tom Hamilton says there may now be enough votes to allow card rooms
to open in the city. He believes it’s an option that should be
considered.

“If you allow pulltabs, you’re hypocritical not to allow social
card games,” said Hamilton.

[Thanks to Robert Woolley for the tip.]