Weekly doubles: Illegal gambling?

[bergdawg]

^ It doesn't matter, the people talking to the city from the club aren't even on DGCR.

 

[New013]

well the first mistake was ever admitting that any cash was changing hands over disc golf, denial is a powerful weapon.

 

[DSmith]

We have the same issue here but we squashed it by pointing out that our leagues help generate funds so that we can help with the upkeep of our courses. If we cancelled league there would be no extra money to do this and parks would have to do all of the work which costs alot more $ in labor and equipment to do so.
Sure they can just say they'll pull the course and put something else there but will the new users help take care of the property for free? I doubt it. You need to point out what your club does for the parks, like upkeep, generating traffic etc. If it doesn't do any of those things , then I don't know what to tell ya.

Also it's not so much the "gambling "issue ,whether it is or not but the fact that an outside, unauthorized party is making money solely for themselves on park property, which is a no-no. This not only covers cash leagues/tournaments but also merchandise sales. If you can prove that your running such things to generate funds to improve the property then everyone will be happy. The parks really never has to see that money if your actually following through on your promise.

 

[pkbeast]

All you have to do is meet somewhere off property, exchange funds, then go play your round, pay out can be made off property too. its a pain, but the only loophole we have here.

 

[Lewis]

Also it's not so much the "gambling" issue, whether it is or not but the fact that an outside, unauthorized party is making money solely for themselves on park property, which is a no-no. This not only covers cash leagues/tournaments but also merchandise sales. If you can prove that your running such things to generate funds to improve the property then everyone will be happy. The parks really never has to see that money if your actually following through on your promise.

This is a really good point. If the government believes your club is "giving back" to the park and to the community, they're going to treat you well. Otherwise they're likely to see you as a a source of expenses and liabilities. My local disc golfers like to gripe when the park spends tens of thousands of dollars maintaining the baseball fields and the tennis courts, but does little more for the disc golf course than mow the grass, but we also have to remember that the government isn't making any money off the course either. With the land dedicated to disc golf being about as profitable for the county as leaving it wild and unused, we're welcome in the park because we're well behaved and because the course gets a lot of recreational use, from people of all ages. In other words, the community benefits from the course being there. And that's really the bottom line: parks officials can't justify the presence of a disc golf course unless it's evident that the community benefits from the course being there. Similarly, they can't justify being nice to the disc golf club unless it's evident that the disc golf club is beneficial to the community.

 

[Fishy]

I just associate gambling with a lot of chance: casinos, horse races, baseball, things that are completely out of a persons control. If you are joining a competition and wagering on your own skills vs. another's then it's not truly gambling. Just my 2cents.

 

[CoachQ]

Also it's not so much the "gambling "issue ,whether it is or not but the fact that an outside, unauthorized party is making money solely for themselves on park property, which is a no-no. This not only covers cash leagues/tournaments but also merchandise sales. If you can prove that your running such things to generate funds to improve the property then everyone will be happy. The parks really never has to see that money if your actually following through on your promise.

This is in line with what I was going to say. Our parks dept. originally told me "no dubs" when I was proposing and installing the course because no individual could financially benefit from the use of public land. I then suggested that we take $1 from each person's entry fee to give to the parks dept. for course maintenance. That alone made them happy. It wasn't so much the gambling but the profit made from free use of public land. Once I suggested giving them a cut, all was OK. Big brother wants their coin.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

^ Methinks DSmith and CoachQ are onto somethiing there...

 

[tripp]

Apply for 501C3 not for profit status. Keep track of the man hours your club devotes to work days.