MOOSE OFFICIAL SAYS LODGE WASN'T OUT TO MAKE A BUCK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993                   TAG: 9301230124
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MOOSE OFFICIAL SAYS LODGE WASN'T OUT TO MAKE A BUCK
An officer of the Hollins Moose Lodge, raided this week for conducting high-stakes poker games for profit, said Friday he knew of the games, but didn't believe they were illegal.
The officer, who asked not to be identified by name because it violates Moose policy to discuss Moose business with outsiders, said the Hollins Moose Lodge board of officers voted to approve the poker games.
He said such games are common in Moose Lodges and other private clubs.
However, he said they were not set up as a fund-raising device, nor as a way for any individual members of the lodge to profit from the games. He said any money the lodge accepted was in the form of donations to pay for food and drinks and electricity used during the games.
He said a fee was not required by the Moose Lodge to play.
"We don't cut the pot," he said.
Botetourt County Chief Deputy Ken Smith disputed that claim, saying one of the men arrested during Wednesday's raid of the lodge said the lodge was indeed collecting a portion of the $100 minimum it took to buy into the games.
"He can call it a donation if he wants to, but when it's mandatory, that's not a donation," Smith said.
He said both the man who was running the game and the lodge itself were profiting. Authorities seized $5,182 in cash from a poker game in progress when the lodge was raided. "Both of them were getting part of the action," Smith said.
Charged with conducting the game was Michael Oland Wright, 47, of Yellow Mountain Road in Roanoke County. Wright is a member of the Hollins lodge, but not an officer. Four other members also were issued summonses on gambling charges.
Under Virginia law, it is legal to conduct poker games, no matter how high the stakes, as long as nobody is paid money to run the games. As soon as a person or organization receives money, even for food or drinks, running the game becomes an illegal gambling operation.
The unnamed Moose Lodge officer said Wright was the member in charge of the lodge building on Wednesday when it was raided. He noted Wright was the only person charged with conducting the game. No officers were implicated.
"How can you be responsible for what members are going to do? If a member goes and shoots someone, are they going to charge you with murder?" the officer said.
He added that he really didn't know about the specifics of how the games were conducted. He said he didn't play in the games himself.
Smith at the Sheriff's Department said an investigation is continuing and additional charges could be pending.
Kurt Wehrmeister, a spokesman for Moose International Inc. in Mooseheart, Ill., the national Moose Lodge headquarters, said the poker games and gambling are allowed under Moose policy as long as they don't break state laws.
"You have to follow the laws of the state to the letter," he said.
Wehrmeister said Moose International may send an investigator to audit the Hollins lodge, No. 1707. "Whether they will be called in on this particular case, I don't know yet," he said.
From there, the parent organization could decide to revoke the lodge's charter or take other action. Wehrmeister said any member convicted of a felony in the case would be removed as a member from the Moose organization. Any disciplinary action against other members would be handled by the Hollins lodge.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB