Eight poker players who were robbed at gunpoint last year in Putnam County have been charged with illegal gambling.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Eight poker players who were robbed at gunpoint last year in Putnam County have been charged with illegal gambling.
Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia said the men have been charged in the county's magistrate's court with misdemeanor illegal gambling.
The men face $5 to $300 in fines. If they are caught taking part in another illegal game, they will face 10 to 30 days of jail time.
The county filed the charges Oct. 29 against: Robert Lee Burgess of Charleston; K.A. Anemodouriotis of Huntington; John Collins of Hurricane; Billy Molner of Charleston; Gerald Higginbotham of Nitro; Harry Knopp of Parkersburg; Adan Assi of Kenova; and Max Ullman of Vienna.
In November 2007, police say Jacqueline Dennis and Kimberly Steinbrecher robbed the men taking part in a high-stakes poker game in a storage building behind a bar on W.Va. 34 near Hurricane.
Police say the women made off with $27,000 in cash.
In October, Dennis, 28, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery.
Steinbrecher has not been indicted. She has been charged with two counts of armed robbery.
"That investigation and prosecution is an ongoing process," Sorsaia said.
As part of the plea agreement Dennis entered, she agreed to testify against her alleged accomplice.
Knopp, one of the men charged with gambling, said the charges were a surprise.
After the group contacted the police about the robbery, Knopp said they were under the impression the county would not pursue gambling charges.
The priority at the time was tracking down the robbers, not the game, he said.
"If they're prosecuting us, they're not going to get any testimony from us for [Steinbrecher]," Knopp said. "We've already told them everything we know. We did the night they robbed us."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Eight poker players who were robbed at gunpoint last year in Putnam County have been charged with illegal gambling.
Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia said the men have been charged in the county's magistrate's court with misdemeanor illegal gambling.
The men face $5 to $300 in fines. If they are caught taking part in another illegal game, they will face 10 to 30 days of jail time.
The county filed the charges Oct. 29 against: Robert Lee Burgess of Charleston; K.A. Anemodouriotis of Huntington; John Collins of Hurricane; Billy Molner of Charleston; Gerald Higginbotham of Nitro; Harry Knopp of Parkersburg; Adan Assi of Kenova; and Max Ullman of Vienna.
In November 2007, police say Jacqueline Dennis and Kimberly Steinbrecher robbed the men taking part in a high-stakes poker game in a storage building behind a bar on W.Va. 34 near Hurricane.
Police say the women made off with $27,000 in cash.
In October, Dennis, 28, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery.
Steinbrecher has not been indicted. She has been charged with two counts of armed robbery.
"That investigation and prosecution is an ongoing process," Sorsaia said.
As part of the plea agreement Dennis entered, she agreed to testify against her alleged accomplice.
Knopp, one of the men charged with gambling, said the charges were a surprise.
After the group contacted the police about the robbery, Knopp said they were under the impression the county would not pursue gambling charges.
The priority at the time was tracking down the robbers, not the game, he said.
"If they're prosecuting us, they're not going to get any testimony from us for [Steinbrecher]," Knopp said. "We've already told them everything we know. We did the night they robbed us."
Sorsaia said the county prosecutor's office moved forward with charging the men because it could not ignore the magnitude of money involved in the game.
"It wasn't a family game sitting around the table on a Sunday," Sorsaia said.
The game was a violation of the law, he said.
"We just couldn't ignore that, " he said.
Dennis entered into a plea agreement with county prosecutors in September. As part of the agreement, she admitted to using a firearm that she took from Assi's truck.
Dennis and Assi have a child together.
Dennis said in September that she knew about the games because Assi took part in them.
Assi was scheduled to testify against Dennis at her initial hearing on Sept. 4.
As part of the plea agreement, Dennis will repay the money she took. Dennis said in September the women stole $18,000, not $27,000.
Steinbrecher, 45, turned herself in to police a few days after the robbery. Dennis, who lived in Kenova in Wayne County, was on the run for about two weeks.
Dennis had told police she spent her share of the money in Atlantic City and New York.
"I blew it. I spent it on different things - drugs, different stuff," she said in September.
Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 348-5113.
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Consider in WV there are a few examples of "NOT" gambling that involve defined gambling, such as Backgammon.
The WV code considers dice gambling then states Backgammon is not gambling.
Ok, cards are gambling but poker?
Lets see, poker has chance (the deal) and game pieces - chips or money.
Poker involves strategy and odds, backgammon the same, where to move pieces after the chance roll.
Ah, though in poker you do NOT have to move your game pieces every time unless YOU choose to. You can opt to not play, backgammon, no; you MUST move the game pieces every time.
Poker involves math probabilities, position, strategy, pot odds, psychology and much more to play successfully than the dice game Backgammon.
So, is poker illegal? Seems if one player-to-player "skill" game is not, then any that meets the criteria must certainly not be illegal as well.