TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Yes, gambling businesswoman Sara Lazzaro knows that bringing all these nice people together to play cards for money to benefit volunteer firefighters and Little League groups and sportsman's clubs is technically, well, illegal.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Mike "Bear" Palfey, 54 of North Huntington checks his cards at a "No-Limit Texas Holdem" poker game in Southwest Greensburg Fire Department. Click photo for larger image.

So does Jim Miller, the social member of the Southwest Greensburg Fire Department who twice paid Lazzaro $500 to organize Texas holdem poker tournaments this year, which have netted the volunteer company more than $10,000.

And Pennsylvania State Police Maj. Frank Pawlowski is just as aware that tournaments of the kind recently held in Greensburg are taking place, without any legal consequences from his troopers or anyone else.

The growth of the Texas Holdem poker game made popular by cable television exposure illustrates some of the gray areas that have long existed in enforcement of gambling laws in Pennsylvania.

Officially, not even a private homeowner inviting friends over is permitted to host gambling events. Gambling participants are doing nothing illegal, but those who sponsor their activities are.

Unofficially, here's the way it works: Law enforcement authorities care about gambling cases that involve complaints from the public, organized crime, establishments with liquor licenses and/or in which some host is pocketing a share of the proceeds for personal profit, instead of returning it all to the players.

If none of the above applies, gambling is generally allowed to proceed. If some of the above apply, it may or may not be disrupted, depending on how large an operation it is and how police view the sponsors.

Groups like firefighters, or religious organizations, or youth groups, or veterans, for example, have generally received a free pass on events such as Monte Carlo nights and Nights at the Races, which are no more legal than the Texas Holdem poker tournaments.

"As far as charitable organizations using gambling as fund raisers outside of the small games of chance law and bingo law ... lots of times, law enforcement looks the other way due to the good works that the charities use the money for," acknowledged Butler County District Attorney Tim McCune, who is also president of the state association of local prosecutors.

"In [Butler] county, any time anybody asks ahead of time, my advice is standard: It's illegal, but I'm not sending the state police in. But if someone loses a paycheck and we get a complaint, it's going to be investigated and potentially prosecuted."

Texas Holdem Poker tournaments are the latest low-priority violation that would require state legislation to make what is commonplace legal. Proposals have gotten nowhere to do that with video poker, which is far more prevalent. Until the laws change, the official line is they shouldn't take place.

"Texas holdem is illegal in Pennsylvania, but at this point in time, we haven't received many complaints from the public on these things," said Pawlowski, director of the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

"Out of fairness, these people see it on television with an air of legitimacy to it, and think this is a great way to make money," Pawlowski said. "Our concern in anything to do with gambling is some of the organizers may be well-intentioned, but it's only a matter of time before organized crime sees this as a lucrative activity and becomes involved."

Lazzaro, 49, the short, motherly operator of Sara's Events, lists her upcoming tournaments on a Web site. She scoffs at the idea that anyone would bust the poker games, which move to different locations and causes each weekend, with her providing the dealers and handling the advertising, registration and equipment.

She's been hired to run more than 50 games this year, she said, without anyone trying to stop them.

"Nobody's making millions of dollars off this. The firefighters make some money, I get $500, and people have fun," Lazzaro said at the fire hall. "This is like bingo --- I don't think we're doing anything really wrong."

Jim Miller, who hired Lazzaro for the fire department, said he checked beforehand with some law enforcement acquaintances for reassurance that the game was safe. The poker tournaments bring in as much revenue as 10 to 20 bingo games, which the firefighters have a license to host weekly, and require a lot less effort on their part.

Officials with the state police Bureau of Liquor Enforcement say that when bars and clubs with liquor licenses raise the issue of Texas Holdem poker tournaments, they're warned not to hold them, and a letter emphasizing that is being prepared for statewide distribution. Gambling offenses generally have higher priority with the liquor enforcement investigators than with other police agencies.

Last year, the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement issued 319 gambling-related administrative citations statewide and made 86 gambling arrests, primarily for illegal payouts on video poker machines. The six-county Pittsburgh district had more than its share of those, issuing 75 citations and making 71 arrests.

"There's definitely more Texas Holdem gambling taking place [in liquor establishments] in southwestern Pennsylvania than in other areas of the state," said Sgt. Paul Jendrzejewski, commander of the bureau's Pittsburgh district. Bob Young, an Allegheny County vice detective who has investigated gambling for 30 years, also spends more time on video poker than any other form of illegal wagering. He said the "for amusement only" stickers on the machines are meaningless.

"That's B.S., but they're careful if they have strangers around," he said of proprietors who have them. Young said he focuses on illegal back-room operations that have 10 or 15 video poker machines instead of those with just a couple.