Recently, someone who reads this column (yes, Scott Wright, there are those who do) asked me to write an article about gambling laws in Alabama; specifically, whether home poker games are legal.

Alabama laws are quite strict on most forms of gambling. Under code section 13A-12-21, a person commits the crime of “simple gambling” (a Class C misdemeanor) by profiting from unlawful gambling activity as a player. This is a very broad law, especially considering that an “unlawful gambling activity” occurs any time a person risks something of value on a contest or game of chance with the understanding that he will profit in return for winning. So, it is technically illegal to bet on anything in Alabama.

However, gambling or placing bets in a social setting in a private place is a recognized defense to simple gambling. This covers many home poker games, or people having a friendly wager on a football game. It does not, however, cover any instance where the “house” profits from the betting. In fact, Under sections 13A-12-22 and 23 of the Alabama code, anyone who profits or conspires to profit from an unlawful gambling activity other than as a player in a social, private setting is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. Basically, any time the house collects any type of fee in exchange for providing gambling services, that person or persons is committing a crime. More importantly, it is a Class C felony if the house uses any type of bells, sirens, video, etc. in order to alert the house of approaching law officers. A class C felony is punishable by a fine and/or one to five years in prison.

Here’s something interesting and that you may not know. According to section 13A-12-24 of the Alabama code, it is a Class A misdemeanor to possess any document, paper, or ticket “of a kind commonly used in the operation, promotion or playing of a lottery” that contains “more than five plays or chances” to win. The law goes on the say that it does not matter if you bought the lottery ticket in a state where playing the lottery is legal. The law does seem to imply, however, that it is lawful to have a ticket with five or less chances to win on it. I expect that, technically, this would make the “scratch and win” tickets with more than five possible ways to win illegal in the state of Alabama.

Even more startling is the provision in this law that any vehicle used to transport any gambling record possessed in violation of this law (in other words a lottery ticket) is forfeited to the state. Strictly speaking, this means if you come from Georgia into Alabama with a lottery ticket that has six numbers on it, you could be arrested and your vehicle confiscated. Before all you lottery players have a heart attack, know that I have never heard of anyone being arrested for possession of a lottery ticket, much less that their vehicle was confiscated. But it is the law.

The next gambling related question I get is usually “what about the dog track?” Well, under § 13A-12-31, greyhound racing is specifically authorized in Alabama. Why? I have no idea.