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If you live in the Palmetto State, your options are limited when it comes to
Texas holdem poker, or any other form of gambling for that matter. This state
has a hard-line stance on gambling and as such there are only a few forms that
are accepted.

So, unless you live near the border, or have a load of frequent flyer miles
saved up, you’ll need to take up another hobby that has no connection to
gambling or wagering whatsoever. At least that is if you wish to stay in South
Carolina.

Lottery

The only forms of gambling that are permitted in the state are lottery and
charity bingo games. Aside from this you can’t bet on anything legally, and if
you do so you could be in a lot of trouble with the authorities.

Even holding a poker home game will land you in hot water if you get caught.
This was dragged through the courts for all to see in the last few years. A
group of people who were running a home game were charged and convicted, only
for this to be overturned on appeal.

They argued that poker was a game of skill and thus exempt from the game of
chance laws that prohibit gambling. The state then appealed this decision again
and won, with the original convictions being upheld. The fact that the state
went to all this trouble to ensure that those who were running home games were
charged and convicted paints a very clear picture for how gambling is treated in
this particular state.

As we touched on above, you can gamble in South Carolina on the lottery, and
also in charity bingo games. The hypocrisy is amazing, but the fact is the state
takes in a massive amount of revenue from the lottery that they can then
appropriate to other causes.

In South Carolina, the lottery raises money for education in the state with
almost $5 billion raised since inception in 2002. This is an amazing amount of
money and really goes a long way towards improving education. This money goes
towards high school programs, maintenance and upkeep of schools and higher
education support and scholarships.

It’s a win-win situation for the state as they can allow lottery gambling to
occur while bringing in a decent amount of money to benefit the state in the
long term. It does scream of hypocrisy though, especially considering that
lottery is so badly stacked against the player and no skill is involved at all,
unlike in poker.

So, if you wish to play lottery you’ll be able to participate in the big
draws like Powerball and Mega Millions. They also offer a number of smaller
games and scratch cards and pull tabs. These are really your only options in
relation to lottery games in the state as it’s all state controlled and
regulated.

Bingo

Bingo is permitted to raise money for charities and you’ll mostly find this
in churches and other community organizations. This has been allowed from 1976,
with stronger regulation coming in the 80s. In 2004 they also started permitting
electronic bingo machines. For a game to take place the organization running it
must be registered as a not for profit entity. This ensures that no money is
being made for profit and it is going towards a charity.

Your Only Poker Option

If you love Texas holdem poker there’s one option for you in South Carolina,
but it only applies if you live near Myrtle Beach. The Big M casino cruise is
the only way you can gamble in the state, and even on this you’ll have to travel
out into international waters to do so, or at least waters that aren’t
considered state owned.

On one of their ships they offer a $2 / $5 no limit Texas holdem cash table
and even have a bad beat jackpot. You’ll only be able to play for up to five
hours each time. Even though this is quite limiting and doesn’t give you the
flexibility you have with a real land based casino poker room, it should be able
to scratch that itch you get without having to travel to New Jersey or Las
Vegas.

This ship also offers a range of other casino games including blackjack,
craps, roulette, 3 card poker, and Let It Ride. They also have slots if you
really want to try to luck out and make back some of those bad beat losses at
the poker table.

Finally, the Big M casino cruise also offers video poker games if you want to
go it solo for a while, and as we all know the pay back percentages on these
machines are quite good.

If you want land based poker action and you’re willing to drive, you’ll have
to go a fair way to find a casino and poker room. The closest is probably in
Jacksonville, Florida, depending on where you are in the state.

After this you’ll have to do some even more serious travel to West Virginia
which offers five poker rooms, or all the way up to Maryland for some even
larger rooms and decent action.

In these cases, you’ll probably be driving for longer than a flight to Las
Vegas or New Jersey so you may as well take the latter option and really go all
out for some awesome Teas holdem poker action.

Online Poker

Now we’ll turn our attention to the online world and try to provide you with
some advice in relation to gambling online when you’re in South Carolina.
Firstly, there are no direct laws that prohibit residents of this state from
gambling online, although this is a bit of a grey area and the lack of law
doesn’t always mean you are safe to do so.

Some states apply an interpretation to gambling law which suggests that land
based laws apply to the online world as if playing online would be the same as
playing in a land based casino. Even if they do this, your chances of getting in
trouble with the law if you were to play online poker or other casinos at an
off-shore site are very low. But you still could land in hot water, so we
suggest always taking a cautious approach in this respect and we wouldn’t
recommend that you play via an online offshore casino or card room.

The state of South Carolina is highly unlikely to regulate online poker soon.
We’ve really covered earlier why this is the case but with such a negative and
restrictive viewpoint in relation to all gambling it’s very unlikely they would
buck this and implement regulations to allow for online poker organizations to
operate within the state.

It may happen one day but it will be a long way off, and only maybe when
people can really start to challenge the hypocrisy in allowing some forms of
gaming and not others. Also, the challenge to the fact that poker is a game of
skill and not luck, could well result in the game being legalized in the state
soon. But this is probably a fair way off.

Native Indian Gaming

Closest Poker Room To Meet

Native Indian tribes in South Carolina have been fighting for years to build
casinos and offer gambling, but this has always been rejected by the government.
It’s safe to say that this will continue to be the case at least for a few more
generations. In 20 to 30 years however, when gaming and gambling begins to open
up around the rest of the country South Carolina may well follow suit.

The simple fact is that the state is almost completely land locked by other
states that also restrict gaming, so the close neighbor argument won’t work here
until other states change.

Free Poker Rooms

Conclusion

If you love Texas holdem poker and live in South Carolina, you’ll need to
move to a better state to be able to play regularly. You just won’t have enough
options to keep you covered, unless you only want to play for a few hours every
week or two.

This just isn’t enough for most players so you may need to make the big move
south to Florida to get all the poker action you need. You’ll find a huge number
of poker rooms in this state and a great community where people truly love the
game and are able to play whenever they like. Florida residents and visitors are
able to enjoy the relaxed state laws and the sheer volume of poker tables that
exist everywhere in this sunny and warm state.

The future isn’t bright for Teas holdem in the state of South Carolina, so if
you have plans to ride it out and wait, you could be waiting a long time. In the
meantime, you’ll need to head out on a cruise or buy a ticket in the Powerball
or Mega Millions to get any kind of poker or gambling buzz.

Unfortunately, playing poker in Idaho is illegal and you
won’t find any rooms in the state’s casinos. It’s a real shame
that poker has been singled out in this respect as a number of
other gambling games are legal, including slots and bingo. But
for some reason state legislators have deemed that any Texas
holdem or poker variant is illegal and can’t be played.

The sticking point in relation to poker in Idaho seems to be
around the differentiation between poker being a game of luck or
skill. While many professional poker players have made it quite
obvious that skill can outweigh luck in the game in the long
run, the law makers in Idaho don’t see it this way and thus have
placed a blanket ban on the game. Slots and bingo can still be
played due to the laws around tribal reserves and the fact they
can run casinos on their land.

Up until recently one of these tribe casinos, Coeur d’Alene,
was running a poker room until it was shut down by authorities.
It was shut down due to fact that Idaho law wouldn’t allow poker
in the state and the federal laws around legality of gaming on
tribal land couldn’t supersede state legislation. The casino and
tribe did appeal, on the ground poker is a game of skill, but
this was thrown out by the courts in July of 2015, which was a
true blow for poker in the state.

Future Texas Holdem Games

Without some serious lobbying from poker players and industry
groups the laws won’t change, so poker in the state probably
won’t be a reality until a new generation of congress and
lawmakers move in to government.

Although you’ll find six casinos in the state, you won’t find
any other table games. Only bingo, class 2 slots, and off track
betting are acceptable in casinos in the state. Class 2 slots
are machines that are centrally linked and are basically a
digital bingo game which has a slot face and graphics for
entertainment purposes. These are not like the class 3 slots
that you would find in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Charity and Home Games

You’ll find two small exceptions to the poker ban in Idaho,
and that’s the fact you can run a small home game or a game that
is focussed on raising money for charity. Famously, a few years
back a bunch of retirees were raided while playing a $20 poker
game. They were told to shut it down or face prosecution.

So, if you still want to get together with a bunch of your
mates and play for $100 you should be OK to do so. If you want
to get together and play for $1,000, then watch out. This would
be considered a higher stakes game and the amount of money isn’t
trivial so you would most likely be pulled up on it.

If you’re running a game and making money for charity you
shouldn’t have any troubles from police. Provided you aren’t
profiting out of the game, and most of the money involved in the
game goes to charity, you should be fine. Make sure you check up
on the laws in relation to this as things are always changing in
this respect. You may also need a permit to run a charity game
in Idaho. We’ve heard mixed reports on running charity poker
games and the law is a bit grey in this area, so proceed with
caution.

Poker Rooms Open

Online Play

Like the rest of the country, you also can’t play regulated
online poker in Idaho. State legislation specifically mentions
that online poker is banned, which isn’t the case amongst many
other states, so if they do sort things out federally to allow
for poker to be re-introduced then nothing will change in Idaho.
Some other states in the US have independently approved the play
of localised online poker which means you can play, but the
likelihood of this happening in Idaho is slim to none.

This is purely because of the fact you can’t even play live
poker in native Indian reservations. It’s all about one step at
a time and that’s the first step that would need to occur,
followed by private casinos on private land and then finally
online poker after this. It’s a sad fact that this may never
happen in Idaho.

Perhaps one of the biggest bug bears of poker players in
Idaho is the hypocrisy in the law around lottery and raffles
being legal, while poker and other forms of gaming are strictly
illegal. You can still play in the major lotteries in Idaho,
including Powerball and Mega Millions, and they also sell
scratch tickets and pull tabs.

This is all state run and profits go back in to community
projects and to local and state governments in areas such as
health and education. While this is good in theory, and
everything goes back to the people of Idaho, it’s outrageously
hypocritical to allow one form of gambling and not another.

Poker is a combination of luck and skill, while lotteries are
pure luck and the odds of winning and doing well are
astronomically bad. So why would a state allow one to run and
the other not to? The sad truth is lottery is a money maker for
government and that’s why they allow it. While on the other hand
the amount of money that the government would make from the rake
profit that casinos make when running a poker game is tiny in
comparison and wouldn’t outweigh the general public backlash
from legalising the game.

If you’re a resident of Idaho and just need to get your poker
fill no matter what, then we have a solution for you. You just
need to do some travelling. Depending on where you are in the
state you can travel in to Nevada, Oregon, or Washington and
you’ll find plenty of poker rooms. Don’t bother with Utah as
gambling, in all forms, is strictly prohibited in that state.
So, it’s even worse than Idaho in this respect.

It must seem unfair to some of the casinos in Idaho that you
can drive just 40 minutes out of the state and be taking a seat
in a poker room and playing to your hearts content. But
unfortunately, that’s just how it goes with states having so
much legislative power in the US.

The best poker rooms to hit up just outside of the state are
Black Pearl Casino in Spokane, Washington, Wild Horse Casino in
Pendleton, Oregon, and Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, Nevada. If
you’re near the border of Montana, you’ll find a few smaller
poker rooms in the city of Missoula just over the border as
well.

Summary

The bottom line is if you live in Idaho and want to play
Texas holdem you’re going to be forced to play at one of the
unregulated online poker rooms, find a private game, or travel
out of state. Depending on your preferences all of these can be
a reasonable option.

Hopefully the state laws will change in the future so holdem
players can legally play, but until then find out what other
poker players you know are doing to get their fix and consider
following suit.