US state approves poker in church
15th February, 2008
South Carolina has deemed there to be just one place in the state where citizens are allowed to breach a 200-year-old ban on poker games - in church.
While land-based and online poker houses remain strictly prohibited, a senate committee has now passed a bill which outlines an ecclesiastical exception to the historic ban on card games.
Far from encouraging priests to swap their pulpits for poker tables, however, the move will apply solely to fundraising events that are being held in aid of good causes.
Orangeburg Senator Brad Hutto said legalising such games as Texas Hold'Em and seven-card stud in this environment would give many non-profit organisations a massive boost - and do so without jeopardising the state's hard-line approach to habitual gambling.
The South Carolina Association of Non-profit Organisations also welcomed the move, hinting at the possibility of churches hosting regular casino nights in conjunction with local charities.
But critics have accused legislators of verging on bad taste and say that the bill - if ratified by governor Mark Sanford - could prove a slippery slope in the staunchly religious, conservative state.
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