BY TOM SOMACH

Do those who play poker have a “negative” lifestyle?

In Canada, they do–at least according to a court there.

Poker players arrested last May in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, when three poker clubs were raided by police, have now been told by a judge that they can have the arrests expunged from the record if they agree to attend a “positive lifestyles” course.

According to the Winnipeg Sun, a Canadian newspaper, 63 people were arrested May 31 in police raids at three Winnipeg poker clubs–the Barca Club, the Bari Club and Shooter’s Billiards.

Six people were charged with keeping a common gaming house, for running the poker games, while the other 57 people were charged with being in a gaming house, a less serious crime, for either being players or dealers, the Sun reported.

Monday, several of the players appeared in court in Winnipeg, and details emerged about how the arrests are being handled, the Sun reported.

According to the newspaper, the Court offered the players, but not the dealers or operators, three options: Plead not guilty and fight the charges, plead guilty and have the judge consider a discharge, or take a positive lifestyles course from the Salvation Army and have the charges stayed.

For those who opt to take the Salvation Army’s seven-week Positive Lifestyles Diversion program, which includes two one-on-one counseling sessions and five group sessions, the Court would stay their charges upon completion of the program, the Sun reported.

The program focuses on life skills such as dealing with stress and loss, with the thinking being that people who commit minor crimes usually do so because of outside factors influencing their life, the Sun reported.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)