Pool halls, sports bars and restaurants across the state are cashing in on the poker craze.
“Without poker, we’d be in a world of hurt,” said Karen Loya, owner of Table Steaks East pool hall in Aurora, which holds four Texas Hold’em tournaments a week.
The tournaments are free to enter. The participants win prizes from the business, such as a $25 gift certificate, rather than cash from other players. Table Steaks generates as much as $1,500 a night from poker players through beverage and food sales, Loya said.
“It’s actually saving my business,” she said, noting that one recent Friday night tournament drew 200 players.
Yet, two state agencies disagree about the legality of such tournaments.
The Colorado Division of Gaming, created in 1991 to regulate the state’s mountain casinos, says the tournaments are legal because they don’t require entry fees.
The Colorado attorney general’s office says they’re illegal because businesses are profiting from unlicensed games of chance through beverage and food sales.
“If these business owners are looking to increase or enhance profits with these games, then that is illegal,” said Kristen Hubbell, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General John Suthers.
Colorado law classifies poker as a game of chance, not a game of skill like bowling or pool.
Operating an illegal gambling business is a Class 3 misdemeanor, with penalties of up to 6 months in jail and a $750 fine, according to state statutes. A business with a liquor license that allows illegal gambling could lose that license.
Hubbell said local jurisdictions have discretion to enforce the law against these tournaments. Thus far, none have taken action against an establishment for running a poker tournament with no entry fees.
One restaurant in Palmer Lake was raided in April for holding tournaments because players were asked for a buy-in of $15.
Other states, such as Oklahoma and New Mexico, also consider such tournaments illegal. Oklahoma allows free tournaments only if prizes aren’t awarded.
Amid the murky legalities, a growing number of bars and restaurants in Colorado are turning to Texas Hold’em to boost sales.
Every night, dozens of businesses run free tournaments, raking in thousands of dollars in beverage and food sales during the hours-long events.
The tournaments have replaced karaoke and live bands as the main entertainment attraction for many bars.
The Colorado Gaming Association, which represents 22 of the state’s 46 mountain casinos, doesn’t have a problem with sports bars and pool halls holding free poker tournaments as long as they’re not breaking the law, said Lois Rice, president of the Denver-based association.
“They have to be conducted in a way that no value is obtained,” she said.
Here’s how free poker tournaments generally work:
Every player receives the same amount of poker chips to start the tournament.
Players are knocked out of the event if they lose all their chips.
The top three players receive prizes such as gift certificates or free food and beverages.
The tournament boom at bars and restaurants in Colorado started about 18 months ago, said Brian Masters, owner of Denver Poker Tour, which runs many of the poker tournaments in the state.
Business owners pay Masters a fee – generally $75, plus $50 per table of eight to 10 players – to organize and market the events at their establishments.
Nearly 150 businesses in the state, including 123 in the metro area, run Denver Poker Tour events, Masters said. More than 20 tournaments are held every night in the metro area, with each drawing an average of 50 players.
Masters said he plans to expand into Arizona in November.
Business owners say the customer traffic from the tournaments increases revenue by as much as four times on a given night.
“It’s actually helped bring business back up to the level it was at prior to 9/11,” said Todd Grosvenor, owner of Greenfields Pool & Sports Bar in Lakewood, which holds tournaments twice a week.
Joe Reams, general manager of Woody’s Wood-Fired Pizza in Broomfield, said his tournaments usually draw about 100 players on Tuesdays and help boost liquor sales by about 30 percent.
“It seems to be what customers are enjoying doing,” Reams said, adding that some tournaments last as long as six hours.
City Limits Lounge in Fort Collins hosts five poker tournaments four nights a week, drawing an average of 80 people for each event and boosting beverage and food sales by as much as four times.
“I can’t imagine what we would be doing if we didn’t have poker,” said owner Kyle Villers.
He said the state shouldn’t consider the tournaments illegal.
“Poker tournaments are a form of entertainment for our guests,” Villers said. “It’s no different from me hiring a live band.”
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
