Virginia Poker Rooms Face Prosecution, Closure

Poker is thriving in Portsmouth, Va. – and the local law doesn’t like that. (Graphic: The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot)

Despite the fact that state law in Virginia doesn’t address poker directly, the city of Portsmouth has become something of a hotbed for poker over the last few years. The Poker Palace has been open for business since 2006, and a number of other rooms, including Victory Poker Lounge, The Poker Room II, Skillz Poker Room and City Limits Poker, have opened in the intervening years. A new location, ShowDown Poker, even opened its door just last Monday. 

Now the local Commonwealth’s Attorney, Earle C. Mobley, says that he’s ready to start prosecuting the owners of these rooms. For three years Mobley has been vocal in his opinion that the state’s gambling law is flawed because it makes an exception for “games of skill,” trying to get the law overturned. He’s had no success, but that isn’t stopping him for preparing to press charges against room owners for offering forms of gambling not explicitly sanctioned by the state of Virginia.

It appears that all of the branches of local government aren’t walking in lock-step with Mobley. Just a day after his announcement that he would begin prosecuting the proprietors of Portsmouth’s poker rooms, off-duty members of the local police force were working security at many of them. The local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police used to raise money at the local rooms through charity poker tournaments.

It’s easy to see why Mobley is ready to go after the poker rooms: they take in a lot of cash. The Poker Room II, for instance, reported $426,000 in receipts from hosting poker tournaments for the 2007-08 fiscal year. But Mobley’s crusade may end up becoming highly unpopular because of the ripple effect it will have throughout the community, since the poker rooms give a lot of money away to local charities. The manager of The Poker Palace says that his establishment has donated $625,000 to local charities over the last four years, with at least one domestic violence shelter saying it receives more funding from the local poker rooms than it does from the state itself.

There’s no word yet from Mobley’s office on how he plans to offset the losses for local charitable operations, or how he plans to chase off the peasants with torches and pitchforks who will likely surround his office once he actually begins his crackdown instead of just talking about it.