A charity poker tournament planned by students at the University of North Carolina has been cancelled after the legality of the event was questioned.

According to media reports, the event, dubbed “Hold ‘em for Hunger,” was to be a Texas hold ‘em tourney to be played on April 20, 2008, on the school’s campus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

The tournament was to have raised funds for something called Nourish International, an international charity that provides food and other items to impoverished nations, the reports said.

But, after looking into the situation, lawyers at the University of North Carolina determined that the charity poker tourney would violate the state’s anti-gambling laws, and nixed the event, the reports said. =A0 “The school was very remorseful about having to cancel the event,” said Graham Boone, one of the tourney organizers.

“They didn’t want to shut us down, but we respect their decision and want the university to do things as legally as possible,” he said.

Media reports also noted that a “Hold ‘em for Hunger” charity poker tourney had been held on the university campus for the past four years without incident, and it was only this year, as organizers planned for the fifth annual event, that legal red flags were raised.

At last year’s event, 510 people each paid $25 to participate and vie for various prizes, the reports said.

The 2007 tournament raised thousands of dollars for charity, the reports said.

Event organizers were expecting over a thousand participants for this year’s tourney, the reports said.

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