Opinion ID: 6986352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: House Banking Game

Text: [6] IGRA’s implementing regulations designate any house banking game as class III gaming. 25 C.F.R. § 502.4(a); see also id. § 502.9 (“Game similar to bingo means any game that meets the requirements for bingo under § 502.3(a) of this part and that is not a house banking game under § 502.11 of this part.”). Recall that a house banking game is “any game of chance that is played with the house as a participant in the game, where the house takes on all players, collects from all losers, and pays all winners, and the house can win.” 25 C.F.R. § 502.11 (emphases added). The Government reasons that MegaMania fits within this definition because CornerMania’s payouts do not hinge on the success of other players but are instead based on a mathematical formula that ensures that over time the house will net fifteen percent of players’ antes. In MegaMania, however, the house is not a participant in the game the way it is in blackjack, for example, where the house plays a hand, and the success of the players depends on the success of the house. And the mere fact that the house nets a percentage of the players’ fees for playing certainly cannot define a “house banking” game. In any church-hall bingo game, the “house” regularly nets some portion of the money it takes in, or there would be no point in sponsoring the game. Thus, while the house does indeed earn a fixed percentage of players’ antes over time, that fact cannot shoehorn MegaMania into the definition of a house banking game set forth in § 502.11. Just because the house turns a profit on players’ deposits doesn’t make the house “a participant in the game” that “takes on all players” and that “can win”. 10