Kandu battle heads to court

Last Update: 7/01/2009 6:21 pm

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WICHITA, Kansas – After the state said Kandu cannot be dealt in Kansas, the creators of the poker style game are taking their battle to get cards in the air again to court.

Last week Kansas Attorney General Steve Six ordered Highlands Gastropub to stop dealing Kandu inside its cardroom, saying it’s a thinly-veiled and illegal attempt to get around state laws banning poker. Now, Highlands is fighting back with a lawsuit and has set up a hearing to get the injunction lifted.

Even though Six calls the game a “sham,” backers of Kandu insist their game is a legal test of skill and they say they’ll actually demonstrate that to a judge next week in an effort to get their cardroom running again.

The tables inside Highlands are now empty after Six threatened felony charges if the business didn’t immediately stop playing the card game. He says it’s illegal gambling, but the game’s creators say the cease and desist order is illegal and are going to court next week in an effort to get the order lifted.

We have tried to be very open, very obvious, very upfront, very transparent about what were playing here,” said Shane McCullough, with Highlands Gastropub and Cardroom. “We believe we've created a new game that satisfies the legal requirements, making it a game of skill.”

Kandu is a variation of Texas hold ‘em and poker, but in this version players get a quick peek at the cards before they’re dealt.

But the AG’s office says there is no way anyone could memorize a 52-card deck in just a few seconds, believing the game is all about chance with no skill involved. Kandu’s creators say the state is just trying to protect its monopoly on gambling and the AG is missing the point. They claim any sequence of cards a person memorizes will help once the cards are dealt, saying the more skill one has at memorizing cards the more successful they’ll be and they say they’ll demonstrate that in court.

“Not everybody’s going to be great at it,” McCullough said. “There are going to be people suited to this game and others that should go play chess. I can’t really read the spread that well, which is why I don’t play a lot of Kandu -- because I know the people that can are going to beat me, because I’ve watched it happen time and time again day in and day out. The players that can do it can do it and you’ll be surprised when you see it.”

Attorney General Six wouldn’t comment Wednesday. A spokesperson says people will hear what the state has to say about Kandu during the hearing on the cease and desist order, which is scheduled for next Friday.

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