sounds interesting and well thought out. do you have any viable alternatives for people who don't gamble or drink?
If poker is completely off the table then board games are a great alternative. Make sure to pick a game that forces players to regularly interact with each other. I would recommend Wits and Wagers or the classic Settlers of Catan. If you're looking for a more serious strategy game (and if your group can tolerate the emotional highs and lows) I would strongly recommend Diplomacy.
Pen and paper RPGs like D&D can be great fun too, but they're harder to get started with and require the same group of people to play every time. If someone can't make it to a session the entire group can't play, and it's hard to bring in new people. But if you can get a game established with a good group it's amazing. I'm still friends with the people I played with in high school.
Here’s my secret: I host a night about once every two months and I bake soft pretzel bites with varying dipping sauces. People know I’m going to bake pretzels and this familiarity is comforting, but they also come to see what sauces I’m gonna have. I try to make them exotic at times
Huge difference between playing for $10 vs nothing. In a free game people tend to be much more reckless.
But $10 is not remotely like playing blackjack in a casino