In what was a stunning afternoon ofactivity in and around the city of Houston, several top 'card clubs' – basicallypoker rooms that were skirting the laws of the state – were raided by local lawenforcement. As a result of the raids, other card clubs in the area shut downout of an abundance of concern and the future of Texas card clubs has beencalled into question.
AfternoonRaids Lead to Charges
Poker clubs aren't illegal in Texas. Anyone can gamble for money in a private place as long as the house doesn't profit from the game. It's a bit of a gray area, according to Guerra Thompson.
The saga of Texas poker clubs has turned another page and taken the story in a new direction. When two prominent Houston poker rooms – Prime Social Poker Club and Post Oak Poker Club – were raided on May 1, it looked as if the longtime skirting of poker laws in Texas was over. There are 27 poker rooms in the Texas area, and we at PokerAtlas provide complete and up-to-date information about every room in every location including Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Edinburg, Houston, Katy, Midland, San Antonio, Spring, and Webster.
On Wednesday afternoon, Prime Social Poker Club was raided by law enforcement officials of the city of Houston. The club had been advertising a poker tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000 which, according to the Facebook page Free to Compete – Texas, was supposed to have started that same day and could have been the reason for the raid. Soon after this news came down, further information was passed along by Free to Compete that one of the other top rooms in the Houston area, the Post Oak Poker Club, had also been the subject of a raid by authorities.
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Free to Compete kept a running commentaryon Facebook throughout the afternoon on their page, with updates that were inreal time and were sometimes mistaken. Early in the situation, Free to Competestated that players who were in Prime Social Poker Club were allowed to leavewith their chips and they were photographed but not arrested. A later update,however, indicated that the prior report of players being able to keep theirchips might have been mistaken, that the players were being considered aswitnesses (hence the photos) and that the general manager of the club was in handcuffs.
Prime Poker Houston Tx Login
The raids on Prime Social Poker Club andPost Oak Poker Club sent several other rooms into protection mode. Mint Pokerwas rumored to have been raided, but that was shot down by late in theafternoon on Wednesday although the club closed for the day 'out of anabundance of caution.' Late Wednesday evening, however, Mint Poker issued astatement that was pulled from Facebook that they would 'temporarily suspendingmember services while (the Mint Poker legal team) investigates the closing oftwo clubs in Houston.'
OfficialStatements from Law Enforcement
Wednesday afternoon, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg issued a statement regarding the raiding of Prime Social Poker Club and Post Oak Poker Club. 'Poker rooms are illegal in the State of Texas,' Ogg announced in the statement. 'We are changing the paradigm regarding illegal gambling by moving up the criminal chain and pursuing felony money laundering and engaging in organized crime charges against owners and operators. Players are not being targeted.'
Houston Police Chief ArtAcevedo added his two cents in the press release. 'We can't allow illegalgambling to go on,' Acevedo said. 'It drives organized crime and fuels othercriminal activity. According to reports, nine people involved in the ownershipof the clubs were arrested on money laundering charges and their respectivebank accounts were seized. They are:
Post Oak Poker Club
Daniel Kebort
William Heuer III
Alan Chodrow
Sergio Cabrera
Kevin Chodrow
Prime Social Poker Room
Dean Maddox
Mary Switzer
Brent Pollack
Steven Farshid
The five men charged from PostOak were all charged as owners of the club. Maddox was charged as the owner ofPrime Social, with Switzer named as the comptroller, Pollack as the generalmanager and Farshid as the assistant general manager.
Prime Poker Club Houston Texas
What IS the Law in Texas?
Some have said that it isn'tagainst the law to play poker in Texas and that's true – it's not ILLEGALanywhere to 'play' poker. Once money is used in the game, however, laws ongambling enter the picture. One of the key laws is that an establishment can'ttake a rake or fee from the game, which therefore makes it against the law.
In Texas, many industriousentrepreneurs thought they had found a way to circumvent this law. According tothe interpretations of many attorneys, these clubs were legal because of thefollowing reasons:
1.The clubs were 'members only' and private.
2. The clubs didn't take a rake from any hands played on the grounds.
3. The members of the club are playing against each other and not against the house, with each player having the same chance at winning and losing.
So how do the businesses make any money,plenty of people have asked. In addition to their membership fees, these clubswould also sell food on the premises (alcohol is reportedly banned from suchclubs) to make some additional cash. The clubs were looked at as a saferalternative than the legendary underground games in Texas, although anoted online poker player was shot and robbed at a poker club in Austinjust last year.
And Whatis the Future?
Currently the nine people charged in the Houston cases are going to be tried for the money laundering charges, not for any actions they took as to running a poker room. But there is plenty of attention being drawn to the subject. In the Texas Legislature, a bill has been filed by Democrat Ryan Guillen (Rio Grande City) that would license and regulate the 'social gaming establishments.' Right now, that bill is stalled in committee in the Texas House of Representatives and its future is unknown.
Whether the raids were truly what they were stated – a raid against money laundering – or something more sinister, other poker rooms must be on alert. Free to Compete has announced a petition drive to bring a grassroots effort together to combat the threats. As of yet, other organizations such as the Poker Alliance (which used to be their forte – the protection of poker players and their rights to play) haven't yet spoken up on the issue, so it may be a fight that Texans will have to wage on their own.
08:2015 May
The Prime Social poker room in Houston has reopened even as Texas confirm 1,100 total deaths from COVID-19 and are getting hit with around a thousand new active cases daily.
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Given the US's shoddy testing systems these numbers are the tip of the iceberg, and it will only get worse as businesses like this flout social distancing guidelines in order to turn a profit in the hospitality and leisure sector.
The club has already been accused of money-laundering in a recent scandal. Although, the charges were dropped when the waters were muddied by various conflicts of interest.
The club are instituting a temperature check on entry, six-max seating arrangements, and enforcing mask wearing for all players.
This is security theatre by the cynical for the gullible.
Temperature checks do not help, as symptomless carriers can spread COVID-19, six max still does not respect the two metre rule, and masks are only partially effective at preventing spread – they will help in a short interaction at the supermarket, but won't do much for sitting for hours across a small table from someone who will be touching your cards and chips for hours.
The club's guidelines also reassure punters the club will be closed from 5 AM to 10 AM 'for sanitation'. While the sacrifice of those key hours of high volume breakfast gambling is commendable, this only makes one wonder if that means they will be doing no cleanup during opening hours when it might make a difference to the spread of the virus.
Poker rooms should be the last places opening up after this pandemic. Prime Social has taken it upon themselves to be the first.
