Should raked home games be illegal?

It all depends. If you have a full service kitchen, and a good variety of drinks ( I serve Red Bull, Monster, sodas, etc) then I see no problem with it. I look at it this way: If you rake a game and people keep coming back, then they accept it as a normal fee for a service. If people aren't happy, then they will let you know. There are NUMEROUS raked games in my area, most are 5-10% and up to $5/pot. I rake 5% up to $3 max (and if 6 or fewer player a max of $1), the lowest in the area. We play for about 10 hours and I make around $300. That covers food and drink, and leaves me with around $100 - $150 in profit. But it's not really profit - my carpet needs to be replaced, my septic needs pumped, etc. There really are a lot of costs (mostly time) involved in running a successful home game. If players bust out, we allow them to deal for tips until they have enough to buy back in. Haven't had any complaints yet.

I used to just charge players 50 cents for soda, $1.50 for a red bull, and supplied food also. I was losing money every week. If you are rich and can afford to run a game on you dollar, go for it. I'm far from being rich, and will never get rich from doing this. It just keeps things a little easier on my wallet.