SIERRA VISTA — As the judge explains to me how poker is not gambling, I understand him, and maybe even agree with him on an intellectual level. Simultaneously however, as the players and dealers ready for the evening’s Texas Hold ‘em event, stacking the chips and shuffling the cards, my mouth starts to water as it might if I were walking past a spinning roulette wheel or a blackjack table with one empty seat.

This is the ambiguous, boggy land that Harold Lee, a former Maricopa County Justice of the Peace, is trying to champion into universal legitimacy.

When most of us think of poker, we immediately associate it with the most nefarious, most dangerous, most historically violent sort of gambling. Judge Lee believes this ingrained prejudice is fundamentally misguided.

“We’re not gambling — this is a sport, it’s acknowledged as a sport and it’s the third most watched sport on television,” Lee said. “We should have the right to organize our industry.”

Lee is not shy to admit he kind of hopes to be arrested for operating the Arizona Card League, which originated in the summer of 2006 in a building adjacent to the Stock Exchange Bar in Old Bisbee. An arrest would give him his day in court and lay the groundwork for a bevy of lawsuits he’s contemplating.

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Author Contact Info: Matt Hickman, Herald/Review