Texas Holdem, Arizona Style

A Scottsdale, Arizona based company has launched an online gaming website but it is different enough to avoid the wrath of the anti-gambling lobby.

You have to be a member to play at Charity Stakes and you then elect to support other charitable organizations. Those are the 2 main differences. Your own retirement fund doesn't count.

How it works
A Charity Stakes member pays $19.95 a month for unlimited access to four online casino games and to pools for various sporting events. Of the fee, $5 goes to a charity and $5 to winners' pools. Examples of worthy and popular charities are the American Cancer Society and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

As a member you are guaranteed "countless hours per month (24/7) of fun and exciting games, tournaments, contests", boasts the website. Additionally, members have the chance of winning large jackpots.

An alternative to gambling
CEO Barbara Bucca says that Charity Stakes is not a gambling website because members do not gamble and cannot lose their money. The site was launched by Bucca and a partner as a fundraising vehicle for charities and as an alternative to online gambling, she says.

The monthly subscription allows users of the site unlimited monthly access to play against other members in any of the four localized games, and the opportunity to participate in pools for seven different sporting events.

The Arizona connection
"Texas-Holdem and other poker tournaments, including casino and Las Vegas nights, have surpassed golf as the No. 1 fundraiser in America today," the website advises.

And fundraising is legal in the USA, even under the current gambling ban. And even though Senator Jon Kyl, that most virulent and vociferous personality in the anti-gambling lobby, also from Arizona, cannot argue with that.