New Laws for Connecticut Home Poker

Last week, the Division of Special Revenue repeated a warning to Connecticut residents pertaining to how they can and cannot legally play poker. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal stated games solicited through Web sites violate the "pre-existing social relationship" condition typically applied to home games.

"It's the nature of the relationship between the players that really determines whether it is legal," Blumenthal said. "If they're coming together because they all answered an ad in the paper or on the Internet, there's no social relationship."

According to Blumenthal, if a group of police who work together chose to get together Sunday nights to play without the host profiting, there's not a problem. If a game is bringing a group of strangers who met through a networking web site such as Meetup.com or HomePokerGames.com, the game becomes illegal, according to Blumenthal. This severely limits methods of meeting people with common interests, such as poker.

Several Connecticut resident poker players disagree with the law and reasoning behind it. Consider that poker in general, is a social event, the players coming together through a common interest there in will be socializing and have the intention to make this a regular get together. The sheer definition of a regular get together of any kind denotes socialization. Applying this to any home game, a guest at a regular home game, would also violate the law, and create a conflict. The Connecticut legislation is being approached on this topic by advocates, in an effort for them to either re-define, or eliminate this law altogether.