A former high school vice-principal has been fined for providing vice.

According to media reports, James McDowell, 33, of Wasilla, Alaska, USA, the former vice-principal of Chugiak High School in Chugiak, Alaska, USA, on Friday was fined $5,000 and given a suspended two-year jail sentence for operating an illegal poker den in Wasilla.

McDowell’s poker den, located in a house next to a Boys and Girls Club, was raided by 27 Alaska State Troopers in 2007, media reports said.

In that raid, McDowell and seven others were arrested, while 14 poker tables and $9,000 in cash was confiscated, the reports said.

The suspended sentence means McDowell will have to comply with all of the rules the court lays down for him, including no drinking to excess and obeying all laws, the reports said.

If McDowell complies, he will have no conviction on his record, but if he doesn’t, he can be taken back to court and resentenced, the reports said.

McDowell had no comment after the sentencing, but his attorney, Joshua Fannon, did.

“I think this is the most despicable waste of resources and court time that we have ever seen,” Fannon said. =A0 In convicting McDowell, Superior Court Judge Eric Smith noted that the poker den was taking a cut of the action–a 5% rake from each pot–and that was the reason the games were illegal, media reports said.

Fannon defended the rake, saying it paid for the rent on the building housing the poker games, but Smith didn’t buy the argument, the reports said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.) =A0=A0=A0=A0