New state gambling laws doom poker clubs, Cherry Masters The Star Press - www.thestarpress.com - Muncie, IN:
"MUNCIE -- Cherry Masters, electronic slot machines, will be the target of Indiana's new gaming police, and Texas Hold'em clubs like Royal Crown in downtown Muncie will close after midnight with a new crackdown on illegal gambling.
'The state has declared us a game of chance,' said Linda Koger, who owns Muncie Liquors and is a partner in the downtown poker club. 'We are being forced to close our doors.'
The option, Koger said, would be possibly facing a class C felony charge for promoting professional gambling.
During its last session, the Legislature approved House Bill 1510, which included new penalties for possessing electronic gaming devices like Cherry Masters and promoting illegal gaming like drawings, pull tabs and sports pools.
That law also redefined gambling as risking money or other property for gain, contingent in whole or in part, upon chance, and only permits charitable gaming. And it gave the gaming commission authority to enforce that law.
'We always contended that the law made them illegal,' Ernest Yelton, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, said about Texas Hold-em clubs."
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