Local poker games shut down in Connecticut

The Connecticut State Attorney General's office has been on the warpath to shut down local poker games held at restaurants and bars.

While those games are technically illegal they've been allowed to go on for years provided that the business owner is not taking a piece of the pot.

So why the crackdown now? Is the increased popularity of poker games finally reached some sort of a moral fault line and the legislators are feeling like they are obliged to stop all this immorality corrupting fine upstanding citizens of Connecticut?

Nope. It's all about money.

It turns out the Mohegan Tribe, which operates the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, has been pretty upset about "illegal" gambling and any efforts to legalize local poker games. They're, in fact, so upset they've threatened the Connecticut State that they'll stop paying the state's share of the casino's revenues, worth roughly $400M annually, should the state ever legalize poker playing in the state.

No poker in the state of Connecticut, unless it's in one of the native american run casinos, it seems.

-TPP