Oregon Local-Option Social Gaming Law (ORS 167.121)

ORS 167.121, enacted in 1974 (1974 c.7 §3), is Oregon's local-option statute for commercial social gambling. It reads: 'Counties and cities may, by ordinance, authorize the playing or conducting of a social game in a private business, private club or in a place of public accommodation. Such ordinances may provide for regulation or licensing of the social games authorized.' The statute is only a grant of authority, it does not itself legalize anything anywhere in the state.

The reason a local ordinance matters comes from how 'gambling' is defined. ORS 167.117(7)(c) excludes 'social games' from the definition of gambling entirely, so a true social game is never a crime. But ORS 167.117(21) splits 'social game' in two: subsection (a) covers a game played in a private home with no house player, house bank, house odds, or house income, always exempt, no ordinance needed. Subsection (b) extends that same no-house-edge definition to a private business, private club, or place of public accommodation, but only where the game is authorized under ORS 167.121. Until a county or city passes its own ordinance, a card game run out of a bar, club, or business does not meet the statutory definition of 'social game' at all, it is ordinary gambling.

That makes it a crime under the general gambling statutes: ORS 167.122 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to knowingly participate as a player in unlawful gambling, and ORS 167.127 makes it a Class C felony to knowingly promote or profit from it. Passing a 167.121 ordinance is what converts a commercial card room from criminal exposure into a state-sanctioned social game, and the statute leaves licensing terms, fees, and hours entirely to the adopting city or county.

Without a local ordinance, playing in an unauthorized card game or similar business or club social game is unlawful gambling in the second degree, a Class A misdemeanor (ORS 167.122). Knowingly promoting or profiting from the game, running the room, taking a cut, dealing for the house, is unlawful gambling in the first degree, a Class C felony (ORS 167.127). A validly adopted local ordinance under ORS 167.121 removes both exposures for games meeting its terms.