Lawyer in Pennsylvania Says Drop The Poker Charges

A lawyer that was recently charged with operating illegal poker games says that they weren't illegal at all.  Larry Burns, 63, lives in Westmoreland County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was charged last year with misdemeanors for running poker tournaments and earning profits from those tournaments.

He wants the gambling charges against him dismissed and says that playing poker isn't actually gambling.  This is the latest county case that is trying to distinguish poker from other types of wagering.

"There are, however, a number of reported decisions of various courts on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that define the terms "gambling" and "unlawful gambling" in ways that do not proscribe such conduct and which specifically states that wagering on poker or playing poker for money or other prices isn't "gambling or "unlawful Gambling" within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania",  Burn's defense attorney wrote in a brief that was filed on Thursday.