Officials Raid Gambling Event in Sweden

The poker wars have spread to Scandinavia. Police raids have targeted events in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Meanwhile, the legal cases stemming from these raids are being thrown out of court. As always, it's a startling waste of time and money for all involved.

The latest raid came in the Swedish town of Grebbestad. A tournament involving nearly 700 players was raided by 50 police officers, all on loan from the town of Uddewalla some 45 miles away.

While it is legal to play poker in Sweden, it is illegal to organize cash games and events where organizers take a profit. So Swedish officials have begun to raid poker events periodically.

PRIOR ARRESTS

There was a similar case the month prior in Sweden, which was thrown out by the judge presiding. But the Grebbestad event was a much larger tourney. When ads for the Grebbestad tournament started to appear in the local newspapers, police officials decided things had gone too far.

The arresting policemen were less enthusiastic. Several admitted feeling ashamed for arresting a crowd of people who were doing nothing more than gambling.

SOMETHING ROTTEN IN DENMARK

In Denmark, fines were handed down for those who hold illegal buy-in tournaments. The Danish Casino Federation, which represents the half dozen or so land-based casinos in Denmark, reported this activity to the authorities.

Sounds like a mirror of the United States. It's immoral to organize poker games outside of the law, but perfectly moral to have land-based casinos and horse tracks and state lotteries.
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Officials Raid Gambling Event in Sweden