New Restaurant Etiquette: Playing Cards During Dinner

Last night a group of us had a very good meal at Paley's in Portland, which would be called fine dining by anyone's standards. Early in the meal, while we were waiting for nettle pastas and escargots with marrow bones, we looked over at the four-top opposite us and they were playing a busy game of cards between courses! And then when their main course came, they didn't put the cards down, but continued to play. The only thing that interrupted their game play was a brief bit of their singing together every once in a while. While it was endless entertainment for us, it was distracting. All of us had been to hundreds and hundreds of fine restaurants and have never seen such behavior. I know Portland is a different kind of town, but this was a new one. The waiter said he has seen it before. From a thread about this over at Chowhound, it appears that in many states this can be construed as gambling and is actually illegal and can jeopardize the restaurant's liquor license. Have any readers out there ever seen this? Comments please!