Poker : By playing poker you can help the charitable organizations

At one point in the past, because they have no other option, the charitable organizations relied on bingo and Las Vegas gambling businesses for fund raising events. As things are imminently changing, nowadays they're relying on the poker obsession to help produce financial support for their programs.

Texas Hold'em poker tournaments, which help the organizations, are no money gamble fund raisers. The rooms are regularly crowded with passionate gamblers who are proud of knowing that the funds gathered by gambling are meant for a fine cause.

Different from live poker rooms at casinos in the Chicago region and Northwest Indiana, where in order to be eligible for gambling, you have to be 21 or older, the minimum age for charity tournaments is 18.

One more advantage is the fact that beginners and neophytes can always find a pleasant and affordable game, which doesn't mean that the charity tournaments don't attract skilled players.

The president of Rockford Charitable Games Association (RCGA), Jim Kasputis, owns one of the major traveling poker games in Illinois. He started his business back in 1984.

RCGA has a data base of 10,000 active gamblers, which include all levels of gambling experience. Somewhere between 300 and 500 gamblers will crowd for each of the almost 200 events that will be held this year at sites in the larger Rockford, Illinois and Chicago areas.

Jim Kasputis stated that the tournament demonstrates the spectacular popularity and growth of the game of Texas Hold'em. Kasputis' business assists Illinois charities like WSAD to run their own tournaments and gather money to help fund programs they sponsor.

An organization is eligible for a charitable game license in Illinois if it is 501c tax excused and activates on the market for more than 5 years. Once licensed, it can hold up to four poker fund raisers a year. Popular locations include restaurants, banquet facilities and VFW halls. Owners can rent their services to legitimate charities up to eight times a year.

The host charity, which has no venture in the games, pulls out 10 % from each shot up to a maximum of $5. The State of Illinois takes 3% with the charity taking the rest after it pays the rent and a fee to RCGA.

Lawfully, a gambler can cash out $250 in excess of what they bought in for, but each fund raiser can offer limitless prizes, like seats to the World Series of Poker.

Recently, West Suburban Association of the Deaf, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, funded a Texas Hold'em poker tournament for deaf players. It attracted participants from all around the Midwest.

Ed Glennon, the event's chairman said that deaf players corresponded at the tables throughout American Sign Language. Many deaf and hard-of-hearing persons gambled in most important tournaments in Las Vegas.

In addition, Dom Niro, the Majestic Star's poker room impresario, stated that the casino will be hosting 3 Heartland Poker Tour events this year.