Poker Run Law?

Had a guy tell me the local gendarme informed a rally director that
he'd be arrested and fined if the rally included a poker run. Said
some state rep or senator had a bill passed that prhibited poker runs.
Searched TX.gov with no results, but that didn't surprise me too much.
Anybody know anything about this?

 

It is my understanding that the law has been around for a while.. just never
enforced until last year when some District Attorney in West Texas, jumped
on it.. Publicity about all this began to surface recently and it was too
late for any of the advocacy groups to act on it..

That's just my impression about it.. Contact one of your local motorcycle
advocacy groups in your area.. ABATE or TMRA 2 should be able to give you
more input on the situation and what action we need to take to correct it..
Good luck..

Your Friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

Just to reinforce what two others have already said.
Gambling is illegal in Texas in any manner shape or form. Gaming is allowed
as long as you follow the rules set down by the Gaming commision.
Poker Runs are gambling and that is illegal in Texas. Only gaming sanctioned
by the state is legal. The lotto, horse racing, dog racing, and bingo is
legal. These are events in which the state has specific rules in order to
run these events legally.
Now to be correct, Poker Runs are not illegal as long as your not paying to
participate, or if you do pay its only to win a trophy or some such. But
thats a fine line and to be really safe you would need to ask the local
police if they would tolerate such a thing.
One thing we did was to have a rally and rename the poker run to a fun run.
In this case the run was just another event as part of the rally and we did
other things for a point total rather than the standard poker cards. Some
stops had darts, washer toss, spinning wheel, ring toss, and other things.
The winner(s) were given trophies. Not as great as winning cash, but its
easier to enjoy a trophy than a jail cell.
But like Stephan said, if your being warned, don't do it. The police were
more than likely given a directive and were kind enough to warn you rather
than wait and arrest. Don't test them on this issue.
BTW - 50/50's are illegal too so you need to stop having them or at least
stop advertising them.