Organizations like country clubs and fraternal orders are complicated when it comes to "illegal" or not.

On the surface, most are not, as long as they play by the rules - usually "members only" and "no house cut". If an organization provides chips to its members to play amongst themselves, there is usually not a problem (some states don't even like that.) However, what they say, an what they do, are not always the same.

Back in the day, using the "members only" claim was very popular. The problem was, some places claimed you a member simply by walking in the door. Lots of raids for illegal gambling occurred because out-of-towners complained about losing money in these "members only" clubs.

The same goes for country clubs and hotels. They claim to only provide chips for entertainment, but often you'll find gambling busts when they stepped over the line.

As a rule, I DON'T put fraternal in the same category as illegals. Many were fronts for illegal games, but they need to be researched on an individual basis to find out. And even then, you are only uncovering the illegal activity if its there to find. "Absence of evidence" and all that.

Real gray area.