We’re hearing some interesting rumors from reliable sources about a fundraising poker tournament that didn’t happen in San Antonio this weekend. The purpose was reportedly to raise money for the American Legion there — with top prize being a WSOP main event seat. Either that prize was donated by none other than Richard Lee … or Lee had something to do with the organization of it. But apparently the cops shut it down before it happened.

Ahh, remember the good-ole-days when the police could just look the other way?

For those of you who may not recall, Lee was the well-connected, family-lovin’ San Antonio bookie businessman who finished 6th in last year’s WSOP main event (winning a cool $2.8 million) … only to have his hometown police rain on his welcome-back parade by busting into his house to confiscate cash and cars on allegations that he was running an online gambling ring. His case is still pending.

Yep, turns out there was indeed another poker game robbed in Dallas Wednesday night … yeesh, sounds very friggin’ scary. It appears to have been low-stakes action, but that didn’t stop three men from busting in to take whatever loot they could find. The main bad guy was wearing an orange ski mask and carried a pump-action shotgun. The other two wore black ski masks — one was brandishing a semi-automatic pistol, the other was standing guard at the door with a baseball bat, according to what two of the eight victims told police officers.

Wednesday Night scoreboard (amongst armed, masked men acting out of turn):

Cops: $1,473
Robbers: about $800

Click here to read the police reports.

Poker bust last night at the Slick Billiards at 2344 Oates Dr.

I don’t know the details of this game — it was clearly more drunken low-stakes “home game” than sophisticated poker operation. Police arrested one person for Gambling Promotion (class A misdemeanor) and issued tickets to 11 others for Gambling (class C misdemeanor).

They also arrested three people for Public Intoxication. Cops confiscated one table, assorted “gambling paraphernalia,” and $1,437 in cash. It took an undercover operation (in response to a citizen complaint, police say) to take this game down.

Pokerati would also like to take this opportunity to remind all our pokery attorney friends that we happily accept advertising from law firms interested in representing players. It’s a great deal — should cost you less than a few billable hours — and it seems there may be a growing need for your services.

From a British gambling-info website:

Seven individuals and four companies are the latest to have been charged by the US Department of Justice for conspiring to violate the US’s ban on internet gambling in a $150 million credit card scam.

[...]

CurrenC Ltd, a payment processing firm based in the British Virgin Islands, BetUS, a Canadian-registered sports betting site, Gateway Technologies and Hill Financial Services, both from Utah, are the companies accused on charges of racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, violations of the wire-wager act and money laundering.

[...]

If found guilty, those accused could face up to 30 years in jail.

Meanwhile, I have found it easier than ever to deposit money on Full Tilt, with my Chase-Visa debit card … and am really torn on whether or not I should be pimping the various online sites I may or may not still play on with a Pokerati affiliate code. Either I am totally missing the boat of getting a little sumpin’-sumpin’ from Pokerati readers’ rakes, or I am making sure we’ll still be afloat when the online poker shakedown fully shakes out.

ALT HED: Coin-flip Situation?

I’m sure this won’t piss anyone off … but check out the letter Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) sent to a concerned poker citizen who requested his support on HB 3186:

click to enlarge

Wow. Way to encourage participation in the political process, sir. I think a lot of elected officials — perhaps the majority even — forget that regular people like Mr. Rogers are their bosses, not their bitches. I may be a little jealous because he has way better hair than me tilty based on the way he belittles a citizen who simply did what he was supposed to do to let his representative know where he stands on an issue. You’ll notice McCall doesn’t actually take a stance … he pretty much just calls Jason stupid for doing so.

Click below for more insight into what a simple-minded congressman Rep. McCall may or may not be …

ALT HED: Why We Lost, Exhibit A

More…

Just because our little poker bill in Texas didn’t make it over its biggest hump doesn’t mean the fun of fighting for legal poker is over. We got all sorts of federal fisticuffs on hand, and here we are talking about putting people in jail for life and the battle for control of an online economy! Woot!

From our good/Myspace friends at APCW:

Ken in Arlington writes in with a reminder that the fight for good poker laws and righteous regulation is being fought on multiple fronts. While Lavigne and others are doing their political masterwork in Austin, Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) are actively involved in undoing the UIGEA on the Federal and International level:

Hey Dan — Maybe this is already old news to you, but if not I certainly think this is a worthwhile blog item and link for you to post. The only congressman who spoke up strongly against the Internet bill last year hasn’t stopped fighting (though it says this happened last Thursday???):
http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=4797708&GT1=10036

A copy of Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act is here:

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/21frank_004_xml_(2).pdf

Love the site and all you put into it.

Ken Daley
NY Times and MLB.com free-lancer, former baseball columnist at Dallas Morning News
Arlington

Over at The Agitator, they’ve got a firsthand account from someone mis-arrested during the June Aces raid. (Thanks, Jason, for the link.) If you recall, that was the poker room busted in cahoots with the A&E network … only to have the tapes from that episode of Dallas SWAT mysteriously disappear.

Bear in mind that, prior to police entering, the place was virtually quiet. There was the sound of poker chips in the air, but not much else. The players were essentially professionals and working stiffs having fun…there were doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. There was hardly anything “dangerous” about the place at all. In fact, the cops found no weapons in the facility or on anyone there. The show of force and weaponry brought by the cops was simply outrageous and unjustified, given the circumstances, but, then again, are they enforcing the law or making a TV show?

[...]

Despite the abject mistruths in the police report, I was still confident the tapes would help me. We finally got our subpoena response. Guess what? According to Granada Entertainment, there wasn’t any videotape of the event. All of the tapes had been recorded over, and there simply wasn’t any tape available. Two camera crews and helmet cams on the SWAT guys and not one single inch of tape existed.

It’s a lengthy report, but definitely worth the read (especially if you happen to have a poker case pending) — particularly because this guy had nothing to do with poker … he was simply helping out in the kitchen because the main food lady had an injured hand. Even as a non-poker player, this guy was able to call down the Assistant District Attorney on his bluff (literally!) when he said during the plea bargain that they had video of the defendant at the tables.

All charges ended up being dropped (even the ones for possession of marijuana and a pipe, which were actually found on him) — as has been the case for all poker cases where defendants have insisted on a jury trial.

No word on whether or not any charges will be filed against the the city of Dallas or agents of Granada Entertainment (the forces behind Dallas SWAT) for destruction of evidence, or perhaps more aptly, lying about destruction of evidence.

Go Poker!

ALT HED: Why We Play (Legally Questionable) Poker, Part 2

Exhibit A: by Pauly
Exhibit B: by Otis

Is there any doubt that these guys are clearly the two best writers in poker? Sorry McManus — you’re still great and all, but that was like so 2004. The above stories (about life in the poker underground) are totally must-clicks, and I’m not just saying that because they also happen to be quality linkers. You wait and see … These are the guys etching out the tales of an era that will be read decades from now.

UPDATE: Wow. Apparently ESPN is no Rolling Stone. Pauly’s said thanks but no thanks to the top gig in town. And, of course, in true Tao fashion, he’s taken what is essentially an age-old storyline and given it the juice:

That all changed after a conference call on Tuesday afternoon. A suit in the upper brass (and non-poker person) had an issue with my philosophy of covering poker. The WSOP is not figure skating. It’s cut-throat poker in Las Vegas, held in one of the most dangerous cities in the world where crystal meth abuse runs rampant, gangbangers frequently blow each other away, female players offer anal sex for tournament buy-ins, and poker players get robbed in the parking lot of the Rio by gunpoint. Heck, just this past weekend, a pro named William Gustafik was brutally stabbed to death by his wife… in Las Vegas.

That’s just the beginning. If you dig deeper, it gets worse.

Seriously, it’s gonna be an amazing World Series this year, isn’t it?

Julian in Dallas writes in with some official information about this past weekend’s poker busts, and … perhaps like a player intentionally showing his hole cards? … informs Dallas pokerers about what the police plan to do next.

(Austin poker people may also want to take note.)

In a nutshell, I think what he’s saying is stop playing poker giving citizens reason to complain about illegal gambling … or their gonna getcha, and might possibly sick the Feds on yo ass! As things stand now, 79 players were ticketed this weekend, 18 of whom are soon to be arrested … with some TABC violations to boot.

Hey, I’m just passing on info — and perhaps contemplating hosting a charity tournament freeroll for the Assist the Officers Foundation — so don’t shoot the messenger:

Dan …

Just FYI, we did not take the persons charged with M/A Keeping a Gambling Place to jail on Saturday night. Those charges have now been filed and those persons will now be picked up and placed in jail. In the future, all persons charged with M/A Keeping a Gambling Place will be placed in jail. Persons charged with M/C gambling are also subject to arrest and could be placed in jail depending on the circumstances. All persons recently charged with Gambling M/C were issued citations and released.

For the purposes of your website, I think you all should know that the Vice Unit would much rather have voluntary compliance from the businesses and citizens of the City of Dallas. Gambling investigations are in fact time consuming operations and we have other priorities that we could be working on. Let me repeat, we would rather have voluntary compliance from a group of normally law abiding citizens. If we cannot get that compliance then we will have to conduct operations that will ultimately discourage those normally law abiding citizens from engaging in such behavior.

More…

The news keeps trickling in … and still no arrests reported from either of the four recent poker “raids” — at DC’s, Top Shelf, the Island Club, or the VFW. (Can we really call them raids if there’s no semblance of violence?) Not sure what the police have in mind. Either they’re respectfully responding to citizen complaints about the aggression with which they handled previous poker round-ups … and/or they are conveniently “responding to citizen complaints” while looking for something bigger. Gotta be, right?

Hey Dan DC’S was in Dallas and open for about a year. No arrests were made only citations. Also the dealers and workers at the V were released with a message that the police department would be in touch after having a mug like picture taken.

Dallas po-po says they know about “a majority” of local games. And even though we have yet to see a single conviction (by judge or jury) of more than 200 potential defendants, here’s a list of underground poker rooms put out of business recently: (Feel free to add if I missed any — but, hey, don’t go naming your friends just to be funny!)

Aces
Jackie’s
JB’s/Goodfellows
Ace High
R&R #2
VFW-Audie Murphy
Top Shelf
Island Club
DC’s Poker House

Previously and outside of Dallas proper
EV Enterprises (Richardson)
Sons of Italy (McKinney)
Poker Pound (Duncanville)
R’s Game (Addison)
R&R (Carrollton)

Hmm, wow … OK, it looks like they’ve gotten all of ‘em. Yep … all gone. No more cardsy fun for citizens to complain about. Now poker players can take up new hobbies en masse … like fishing/bowling/golf/panhandling/beekeeping/graffiti.

The Dallas Police Department continues its crackdown on illegal gambling … busting a poker game at the Audie Murphy VFW Post 1837 just several hours ago. There were reportedly seven full tables running when nearly 20 police officers entered the room. It was the vice squad this time, not the SWAT team … though some undercover player-officers were donning black hoods, face masks, and sunglasses to keep their identity sealed — one of whom responded to the name “Curtis.”

No official numbers yet on tickets, arrests, and money seized … but it’s looking to be about 70 players issued gambling citations, and a dozen employees handcuffed and taken to jail[UPDATE: It appears they, too, may have just been ticketed] for “keeping a gambling place.” According to Deputy Chief (Vice and Narcotics) J.A. Bernal, most of the alleged poker criminals “appeared to be hardworking, normal citizens; average everyday working joes. That’s what we found here today.”

Tonight’s VFW bust comes after an attempted armed robbery at one Dallas room Friday night as police were reportedly raiding other poker rooms (including the Island Club and new Top Shelf). DPD tells Pokerati they also hit a couple 8-liner joints Friday … and that more gambling raids are to come.

Meanwhile, legislators in Austin are considering a bill to legalize some semblance of poker games similar to the one taking place at the VFW. Several state and local politicians support this bill ([tag]HB 3186[/tag]) … presumably as an example of sensible government … including Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, whose office now has at least another 100 poker-related misdemeanors added to it’s caseload.

More…

Our pals from Wicked Chops seem to be cool with leaving the hard stuff to us … as Snake (or is it Chops? I know it’s not Addict) sends a link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s take on the Georgia poker raids. (reg. req.)

A few interesting things … 1) they are running a poll on whether or not Georgia should legalize “poker gambling” — and right now it’s running in poker’s favor, 77-23.

2) The AJC reports a $500 bribe, as opposed to $5,000. (I tend to believe neither both CardPlayer.)

And … 3) The very last graf:

Hill said they have not established a connection with a recent gambling case in Roswell. On Monday, Roswell police arrested 27 people at a weekly poker party at a home in a neighborhood off Holcomb Bridge Road.

Wow. 27 people. Home game.

Meanwhile, WCP helps break the news that the pokerlicious Rhowena Colclough is semi-available. Click on over for delightful extramarital details and links to naked pictures … particularly if you just got out of jail.

Anti-poker insurgents are on the offensive in suburban Atlanta — with dozens arrested at the second big poker-room bust in a week. This is more serious than in Texas, because Georgia law puts running a poker room as a felony, and players aren’t just ticketed … they are taken to jail. One of the 52 players arrested (last night?) was a judge.

The sting came after a monthlong investigation by the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office vice unit. Hill said the casino [in Jonesboro] - which had a sign out front saying Poker Palace and is literally down the street from the sheriff’s office - had been operating for about two years.

Things have apparently been made worse in this case because some drugs were found during the raid, and one of the operators allegedly offered a $5,000 bribe to make his problems go away.

Atlanta, of course, is a pretty big poker town. About a year ago, Josh Arieh’s favorite local game got raided. A-town is also the headquarters for Bluff and Wicked Chops.

Related:
Cops n’ Rounders - 2/14/06

UPDATE: The Macon Telegraph just updated their story, so the one referenced above has changed. The new news item (by the same writer) points out that a former pro wrestler — Disco Inferno — was arrested by Roswell police. And he was also one of the people with the drugs. Here’s a new link to the original story about the judge and the alleged bribe.

And here is a link to a story about charges being pressed against the operators in the first of these two raids.

It’s been way too long since I’ve done an Instapoker. Please bear with me as I delete emails and close down a random assortment of open tabs in my browser:

An interesting site about high-stakes online play.

IGGY is back posting at Guinness and Poker. Good for him … that’s where he belongs. Of course he should know that no one will believe word of his “retirement” ever again.

Another site that previously disappeared has since transmogrified … WPBT headquarters. (World Poker Blogger Tour, for those who don’t know.) Not sure who’s behind the new WIKI or where they’re going with it, but we’ll be clicking every once in a while to see what’s going on. (Go DOT-INFO!)

NETELLER is now pulling out of CANADA (where they are based) and TURKEY (which has arguably the toughest INTERNET POLICE FORCE out there.

Gambling 911 reports that there’s no record of Neteller funds seized by the United States. Disconcerting if true. A Neteller Customer Coalition has formed to, er, do something about it and/or at least have a place to bitch.

CHRIS FERGUSON’s boring table demeanor:

It supposedly SNOWED in LAS VEGAS yesterday.

And that comes just two weeks after the purchase of a DISNEYLAND-size swath of land on the SOUTH STRIP to become the site of a monstrous pee-recycling environmentally friendly indoor water park and “snow dome”. Via some presumably stoked BRITISH SNOWBOARDERS.

American poker money is getting more expensive. ULTIMATE BET has altered its affiliate agreements for US players, subtracting for “overhead.” UB was kind enough to let inform its AFFILIATES three weeks after the policy went into effect:

March 13, 2007

Attention Affiliates… Regarding US Traffic Only!
Effective: Thursday, February 22, 2007

UltimateBet is still holding a strong position in the U.S. market providing poker players from around the world with the very best online poker experience. We are 100% committed to staying in the U.S. and provide your players with the easiest, fastest, secure deposit and cashout options. However, in light of Neteller and other popular ewallets leaving the U.S., our processing fees have increased upwards of 5 times. These costs are higher due to the new and only deposit options available to U.S. customers, some of these deposit options also require UltimateBet to cash guarantee all funds - please note we keep a cash reserve to cover all of our player balances.

Due to this increase in costs, UltimateBet has amended its terms and conditions so we can stay in business to enable you and Ultimate Bet to keep making money and not be forced to leave the US market.

Calculation of Net Revenue has been amended to reflect the following:

All Affiliates are paid on net revenue. Net revenue is calulated by taking the gross revenue an affiliate’s player generates and subtracting any processing fees which can include:
Merchant processing fees;
Charge backs;
Processor default;
Tourney deductions;
Any other agreed upon deductions.
The amount of these deductions will be taken off of Gross Revenue. At that point the remaining number is considered the Net Revenue. You, the affiliate, will be paid based on this net revenue number.

Please see the example below:

Gross Revenue generated by the affiliate’s U.S. players.
Minus Processing Fees.
Minus tourney deductions and any other agreed upon deductions.
= Net Revenue.
You, the affiliate, are then paid their RevShare on this net revenue.

Last, we will combine your U.S . commission with your Non-U.S. commission for your total payment.
UltimateBet has the most competitive merchant processing in the industry - i.e. your customers will be able to deposit and cashout better with UltimateBet than any of our competitors - this means higher customer lifetime values and bigger checks for you that will continue!

By staying in the U.S., UltimateBet is making the commitment to allow you to continue to make money!

Your non-U.S. traffic will not be included in these changes. This is only for U.S. traffic.

Effective: Thursday, February 22nd!

Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

The UltimateBet Team

Speaking of ULTIMATE BET, I think this is the kind of questionable appropriation of the WSOP LOGO that HARRAH’S says it will frown upon vigorously be trying to stop:

(Note: No offense to MEAN GENE, who is just doing his job.)

Speaking of jobs, PAULY, OTIS, and the SHRINK are kickin’ it in MONTE CARLO.

And Pauly has an awesome interview with the hip-hoppinest PROFESSIONAL KENO PLAYER, who happens to be from TEXAS.

There’s more stuff going on, of course … but I think that’s good for now.

Think the crackdown on online gambling — which became a clear reality with the arrest of Sportingbet’s Peter Dicks in September — is anything but a legal shakedown? Dicks, who had criminal allegations pending against him in Louisiana, had all charges dropped last week … for $400,000. (via NWP)

Yep … that’s all it takes, apparently. The money will reportedly be split amongst the St. Landry Parish DA’s office, the Louisiana State Police, and the state attorney general’s office.

ALT HED: Price of Doing Business?

Neteller says to Americans: Don’t worry, you’ll get your money back we’re trying to get you your money back (at least some of it).

According to yesterday’s press release, Neteller has signed agreements with the US Attorney’s Office and some forensic accountants with Navigant Consulting. The plan: To have a plan in about 75 days.

Sounds good, I suppose. But as one of many Americans (does anyone know an actual number?) whose Neteller money has been seized by the Feds, I’m not banking on much. In fact, read the Neteller FAQ … I know they’re just playing it conservatively, most likely on the advice of counsel, but really, at least a few things are a little bothersome, not just because I want my $520. First, there is no reassurance that, yes, you will definitely get all your money back. They talk about coming up with a plan to “distribute” funds … but really, what does that mean? We’re not looking for you to come up with a socialist system for spreading around a portion whatever capital you have on hand … we are looking for access to our own kizzash, yo!

More…

This reminds me … Channel 11 ran an interesting story a few weeks ago about legally questionable poker in Dallas.* Though the hedline claims police are “putting the heat on” illegal poker games, reporter Kimberly Ball does more to ask the question, “Why?”

In a relatively bold statement, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price says it’s time make poker rooms legal. And a deputy Dallas police chief informs us that he doesn’t have the resources to put a stop to all the games. That’s always the issue with poker, isn’t it — should we spend money to try and stop it, or generate money by making a previously poo-pooed behavior legit?

Of course, not everyone in Texas has read enough Sklansky to understand why the above is really an easy decision. But the Channel 11 story does suggest a little more thought is being given to the math.

More…

A fresh comment on a relatively old post about a Dallas poker raid caught my eye … seemed relevant in light of discussions we’ve been having about police activity in other Texas poker scenes. In it, the accused houseguy makes claims of borderline abusive behavior from police — smacking an 83-year-old man in the back with the butt of a rifle, for example.

Nothing Rodney King-like, but still, pain-addled nuisances that might kinda should be expected when dealing with armed enforcers charged with putting a scare into a semi-criminal subculture.

It’s snowing outside. If you don’t mind, please bear with me as we shut down about 30 open Firefox tabs that Pokerati has accumulated over the past few days.

First off, happy February 14. If you do a Yahoo! or Google image search for “valentine poker” (quotes excluded) here’s the first thing you see:

HOLLAND has officially legalized online poker, licensing the game to its government-run land-based casino. This development comes shortly after a round of raids on AMSTERDAM home games. (See the connection?)

UTAH has no intentions of legalizing gambling, but the state did amend some recent legislation to ensure that AMATEUR TEXAS HOLD’EM is allowed in bars.

Meanwhile, WYOMING is one step closer to legalizing “social” cash games in bars and restaurants, though big tourney action may still be outlawed.

A lot’s going down in MACAU, which apparently generated more gambling revenue than LAS VEGAS in 2006. This sorta expansion has Virgin pioneer RICHARD BRANSON putting a few billion into the Asian gambling pot.

But Chinese casino mogul STANLEY HO isn’t gonna let the round-eyes gank all his action.

JOHNNY CHAN has plans to eventually open shop in Macau (and elsewhere) — has partnered with the makers of The Block to create “the world’s first poker hotel.” Tourney director extraordinaire MATT SAVAGE is part of his team — we can only hope this doesn’t mean all of China will be taught to do the flop one card at a time.

Here’s a pokery valentine, from CUBA:

Speaking of communism, you probably have heard by now that the US ATTORNEY’S OFFICE has seized $55 million worth of Neteller funds as evidence.

About $520 of that belongs to yours truly. I suppose that makes me COLLATERAL DAMAGE in the [tag]War on Poker[/tag]:

Here is what Neteller has to say about how and when we will get our money.

Amy and the Shrink have an update on the investigation into a seriously BOTCHED COLOR-UP during last year’s WSOP main event.

It coincides with news that HERSHEY’S has been named the Official Chocolate of the 2007 WSOP. Mmmm, two million extra chocolate chips!

POKERTEK, makers of dealerless electronic poker tables, is being sued by TELLIS, a TEXAS-based software company that doesn’t even have a website.

Haley continues to investigate the legal battles between HARRAH’S and FREDERIC SCHIAVO over the rights to WSOP.COM.

This valentine from PKR.com suggests that while a man’s hand may seem stronger than a woman’s … it’s still possible that she’s holding the nuts:

UPDATE: Just re-watched the vid, and the lady actually would need some help on the turn to make her straight-flush.

Did you know the proportion of WOMEN PLAYING POKER continues to grow? The XX-chromosome set reportedly represents 30 percent of online players now.

BRANDI HAWBAKER, cute-as-pie poker girl and Full Tilt nipple-cover model, has reportedly found a new way to fund her bankroll by stripping at SPEARMINT RHINO. (Congrats on the new sponsorship deal!)

Remember, on February 14 and forever …

A poker-gamer in central Texas (not Lavigne or Austin Pete) informs us about another shakedown in A-town, Sunday night (!) … Cops reportedly shut down (temporarily?) a rather large, long-standing game that is somehow connected to a host who may or may not be going through an divorce with a low-ranking civilian employee for the APD.

Now granted, below is just one player’s word passed to another, but still … apparently we’ve got fissures in the Austin underground semi-related to overabundant junk mail, turf wars, and marital tilt … uh-huh … sounds like everything should smooth over nice and fine for everyone, no problem. Go poker!

The game has been running for about 3 years now. From what I understand 2 weeks ago they decided to have a larger than normal Tournament. They decided to advertise this by placing flyer ads up all over the area they are locate (dumbass move #1!) The ad was found by the President of the Home owners Assoc. for the neighborhood… who also happens to be a bible thumping wrath of god type (dumbass move #2!). The HOA sent a letter to the Game and told them to basically get out or they would run them out. with a LARGE tournament in the works they got the bright idea to move the game to a Hotel in the area. Well the Hotel they moved it to is the same Hotel that another LARGE monthly tournament is held at and when the guys running that game got word they flipped monkey balls and called the Hotel and told them what they were doing was ILLEGAL!!! The Hotel says thanks to the Tattle Tells and oh by the way dont ever come back you never told us this was illegal what YOU were doing and we dont want your business! Now 2 large tournaments are homeless.

More…

I just learned last night from a powerful lawyer playing next to me in an underground poker game that we’re not supposed to use the phrase “8-Liner” … because 8-Liners are bad. The preferred terminology is “VLT” — as in Video Lottery Terminal. Ahh, of course. Duly noted.

Upon returning home from that tourney (I finished 10th — three got paid) I learned that there was a big semi-raid on a Dallas VLT emporium. “Hank” in Dallas reports:

A friend of mine was at a local 8-liner establishment Friday night that was raided at 9:55. (N.E. Dallas area)

A lady playing a machine fell suddenly ill and asked a staff member to walk her out. Door was opened and in came 4 officers. The officers and the “ill” lady took it down.

All players, staff and the owner were given citations at $165. Monies and machines (55+ machines) were confiscated. Interestingly enough, no arrests, monies/winnings were not taken from players, no news crews and no warrant checks conducted.

I know for a fact had backgrounds been checked, arrests would have been made.

My only thought is - the money in the machines came from the government anyway - disability checks must have been looking good to the City of Dallas!

Hmm, I gotta say this is all very peculiar. But possibly a positive sign if authorities are simply doing their research to assess how much taxable money is out there for them to legitimize. But this, of course, could be just hopeful thinking on my part. And as all good Pokeratizens know, hope is seldom a good strategy.

So seriously … are the cops cracking down, or just doing some intensive research? A “home game” got raided in Austin on February 2. Lemme guess … “Operation Groundhog”?

Turns out the Houston poker “bust” was hardly a raid in the Dallas SWAT sense of the word, but presumably reliable sources tell Pokerati that six uniformed police officers were poking around in the Houston underground last night … stopping play at one room (unceremoniously and without violence) to conduct some sort of investigation.

Either that or this police squadron just happened to include a bunch of poker players looking for a fun and fair place to play after they got off-duty.

Cops arrived around midnight to a game located in an industrial office park complex in (West?) Houston, where reportedly about 30 players had shown up for a $60 tourney with $20 rebuys — your typical white-collar assortment of lawyers, accountants, realtors and housewives with maybe a few random thugs in the mix. Police entered through doors on two different sides of the room without guns drawn … instructing players to put their money and IDs on the table. While running standard warrant checks they asked a few questions about what was being played, whether or not there was a rake, who was running the game, etc.

(Not sure what answers if any were given, nor how many players in the house had notoriously bad poker faces likely to give off tells.)

The un-armored squadron left after about two hours — no arrests or citations issued — at which point several players also departed. Supposedly a few of them got pulled over on their way out and were asked more questions. Inside the poker room, play resumed.

A Houston poker game was raided by the 5-0 last night … our H-town correspondent was off in Vegas yesterday (competing in an Ultimate Poker Challenge Ladies event), but she is now rushing back to the home office to get the real dirt have dinner with her kids.

Developing …

More info TK.

So Which Way Will Texas Go?

While doing some other research, I stumbled across this Channel 8 story that aired back in November … about illegal 8-liner and video poker rooms in Hunt County. I have long heard of their existence, but have never stepped foot inside one. Interesting — kinda like a poker room, only the patrons seem a bit more pathetic. (At least at a poker table you have a semblance of social interaction going on.)

Anyhow, the Texas Legislature is back in action this month … and according to the story, there are efforts in place to toughen-up Texas’ current gambling laws — making it a felony to run such an establishment. (The gist of the story linked-to above is that law enforcement can’t do much to wipe them out of business when the crime is only a misdemeanor.)

I haven’t seen the bill being championed by Rep. Ron Flynn (R-Canton) yet, and it sounds like he might be trying to tighten the screws just on 8-liners/slots, not worrying about poker. While that’s kinda-sorta a good thing, it also serves as a reminder that the legislative battle is on. Texas’ gambling laws will change. How they will change … is to be determined.

More…

Heading out for a little family-time vacation … but before I go, here’s a round-up of what others have been saying about the triple-hit to Dallas poker.

OMAHA, Nebraska–Enjoying a little family-time vacation. Hope you are, too. But before I head out to the local church and then casino, here’s a round-up of what others have been saying about the triple-hit to Dallas poker last week.

First, the news videos — CBS 11’s exclusive live coverage of DALLAS SWAT vs. glass walls and poker … and NBC 5’s less dramatic report.

The second CBS story (they led with it twice) here.

UNCLE BARKY reminds us that these televised raids happened to coincide with SWEEPS. Ah, now it makes sense. Brought to our attention by Texas Gigs. MIKE ORREN’s sibling site PegasusNewswire is also on top of legislative developments.

Some relevant numbers related to the Dallas SWAT offensive

November poker arrests: 20
Ticketed players: 79
Cash ceased: $43,929
Weapons found: 0
Drugs found: 0
Players with outstanding warrants: 0

A SMART PERSON over at ScienceBlogs offers more numbers:

Dallas is one of the most violent cities in the nation, with a violent crime rate 3 times higher than the national average. The murder rate of 20.2 per 100,000 people is nearly 4 times the national average. Rape occured in Dallas about 50% more than the national average, while robbery and aggravated assault were more than double the national average.

That PISSES OFF The Fat Guy … but we already knew that.

Here’s what the kids at 2+2 are saying. A few more firsthand details, a spoiled Vegasite who doesn’t get the whole UNDERGROUND thing, and a New Yorker calling NYPD SOFT compared to Dallas. (”And I thought the NYPD was rough, [but] we had it easy compared to those raids.”)

Speaking of NEW YORK, a Long Island VFW game also had masked, gun-wielding men bust in and take almost $40,000 on the same night of the Dallas raids, but their guys were ROBBERS, not cops.

This comes via Part-time Poker Forums.

Peeps are also talking about it on East Texas Poker.

And Weston Poker, of course.

Over at the Google version of RGP, GARY CARSON says, “People attempted to run from a Dallas Swat team and aren’t dead? Wow. Lucky mother fuckers.”

REASON MAGAZINE is really unhappy about the PARAMILITARIZATION of America’s police forces. More than 50 comments about the Dallas raids from non-poker people.

Did you know the Dallas SWAT team has a 1959 tank built by ROLLS ROYCE in its arsenal? ATLANTA SWAT has two of ‘em.

Speaking of Atlanta, earlier this week plain-clothes vice cops in that city busted into the wrong house with guns drawn, and when the 92-year-old resident OPENED fire on the intruders, Police blew her to KINGDOM COME.

The BRITS are gunless pussies concerned about American SWAT teams killing innocent citizens as if they were IRAQIS.

Back to poker … at least one HOUSTON ATTORNEY is concerned about DPD tactics, and points to a map of botched police raids in the United States.

But we shouldn’t have to worry about Dallas SWAT making any MISTAKES — they train in Oregon.

Of course that doesn’t make THE GERMANS feel any better about what went down in Dallas.

BIG BOB WILONSKY was one of the first to spread the word about Dallas poker woes to our local non-poker brethren.

The POKER PLAYERS ALLIANCE BLOG has been with us the whole time, too.

A forum of POKER AFFILIATES talking about us.

So is POKER LISTINGS.

LOU KREIGER has some intelligent thoughts on the matter — and his commenters are clearly smarter than Pokerati’s:

According to the reporters, last year, 3 people were arrested and 8 citations were issued. This year, 31 people were arrested and 180 citations were issued. Now, a reasonable person might ask, what’s changed from last year.

The answer, they now play poker at two Indian Casinos in Oklahoma, an hour from Dallas!

Last, before heading out, I wanted to point out that the DALLAS POLICE are kinda-sorta on our side, making the argument for legalizing poker when LT. CHRISTINA SMITH says:

“Poker is not regulated, so these people who are running these poker houses charge a lot of money, [and] there’s no way to check to see if what they’re doing is proper.”

That, of course, is our point exactly. And that SWAT teams probably aren’t the best allocation of resources to attempt to do so.

Jackie’s was probably more of a “family” game than any other. (BIG family, but still.) Anyhow, if you were one of the people who considered this place your home, you may not want to look at the pictures below. All kinda sad, really. Shortly after these were taken, Jackie’s was apparently looted — with thieves taking a big-screen TV, leather couches, office chairs, pots and pans, and pretty much everything else that Dallas SWAT didn’t leave behind.

By the way, “Jackie” … I am pretty sure you did not get arrested — just “the kids” did. So just a heads-up … I think the cops are looking for you, FYI.

More…

Is it premature to declare the death of the Dallas poker scene?

Probably so. Games will change — as they did after the last SWAT-team raid) — and certainly some will survive … I’ve learned of at least one room in North Dallas that heard about the raids going down but did not inform the players and kept the action moving. (”[The manager] told us we were fine,” a dealer reports, “but I was so scared I was practically shaking in the box.”) Whatever happens, it seems clear that Dallas poker glory, as of last night, is not going to ever get back to what it once used to be — at least not until Texas Hold’em is legalized south of Oklahoma / west of Louisiana / east of New Mexico / north of Mexico.

Does anyone know, how’s the action around town tonight?

Ed. Note: Pokerati is not in the business of ratting out referring to legally questionable poker establishments by their proper names … at least not until they get busted to the extent that their business becomes part of the public record. Or until they put up websites like this one.

UPDATE: The “Shmounder Shmlub” is apparently suspending operations. At least for tonight.

UPDATE: Upon getting a phone call at “Mr. Kotter’s” game (in Dallas), management told the players about the three raids immediately and cashed them all out. Finishing the hand they were on, of course. Am guessing the remaining action went “check-check-check-check-check …”

From a Swiss Avenue poker-playing eyewitness:

I was at Ace High earlier tonight when sometime before 11pm, Dallas SWAT announced their prescence with authority…well kinda. They started pounding on the front door as loud as you can imagine, but didn’t get through at first. So my first instinct was that the place was being robbed. While Barney Fife and company were dicking around with the door, there was plenty of time for all 20 or 30 folks to pour out of the back door and into the back alley. Pretty much complete chaos and every man for himself at this point. Come to find out that all of the fences are really high back there in the alley, so it was a bit anti-climactic…bummer.

After a few brief moments of scampering around and watching a few people make valiant attempts at scaling these walls, SWAT came out the back door and started waving their M-16s around as the’ve been known to do when bringing poker players to justice. Considering that just moments earlier I thought this might be an armed robbery, I was actually kinda relieved to assume the face-down-on-the-pavement position and receive my zip-cuffs. As I laid there, one of the cops actually razzed me a bit asking why I wasn’t long gone since they’d had so much trouble with the door. I don’t why he was messing with me, since by my estimation, not a single person escaped.

Not a whole lot of drama after they had us all bound, lined up, searched and ticketed (for “gambling”). Nothing too unreasonable, once the gun barrels were lowered. A&E camera crews weren’t there this time, although there was a camera from a news crew, but he wasn’t well labeled and I didn’t feel like hanging around to ask him who he was with (although I’m now dying to know).

Three Dallas rooms got raided tonight. Jackie’s, JB’s, and Ace-High. SWAT teams, machine guns, arrests, and TV news cameras. I suspect some folks will be getting out of jail soon. Feel free to be in touch. Especially people who may have snapped pictures with their cell phones. Pokerati will continue to post as we find out information, so check back for updates.

The “dallas poker raids” tag will carry the latest.

I suspect you’ll also find some good information at the Weston Poker Forum.

This seems to be the second big blow to the Dallas poker scene. The first one being the Aces raid in June … and then the Dallas SWAT team sat back, let the Dallas scene regroup before … pop-pop-pop! Fortunately, no one got killed.

For some recent discourse on the status of the original Aces cases, click here.

Eee.

Congratulations to not-so-amateur hold’em player Bruce Priddy, who edged out his Republican opponent to become judge of Dallas County’s 116th district civil court.

He joins Antonin Scalia as one of two judges in the United States that Pokerati knows to clearly understand poker. It’s almost enough to inspire me to commit crimes and sue people!

If I told you otherwise, like “click the Google ads!”, that would be a clear violation of their terms. So don’t click. If you do, I will receive money for said clicks, and that wouldn’t be right.

Actually, I’m kinda surprised to see any Google ads showing up at all right now, as I just got this disgruntling, post-UIGEA email from Google:

Hello,

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as www.pokerati.com.

As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on sites with content related to gambling or casinos.

As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site.

Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies ) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance.

Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

“Related to”? But yet it’s OK for them to accept money from a site such as Poker Listings? Whatever. Dear Mr. Google … this is an INFORMATIONAL website, protected by the First Amendment as far as I know. My readers are very interested in the information served by the people who pay you for click, particularly all the free poker stuff and poker shirt advertisements. By the way, I would never tell them to click the ads blindly … in fact I am telling them not to … because, you know, that would lead to people actually paying for Constitutional services delivered.

Also, I really love the Google Earth maps. Wow, pretty impressive stuff. I’m almost surprised the government hasn’t given you some sort of secret contract. After all, everyone knows the importance of amassing database info these days, and I can only imagine the Feds would love to have access to that. Did you know that along with the UIGEA, one of the new laws snuck into other legislation in late September was something calling for all of us to have Federal ID cards by 2008? Yeow! I bet they would love to amass info on the citizenry, but obviously we would be up in arms if they required that … which is where yu guys become extra powerful. You see, the genius of Google is that you guys get us to submit a SHITLOAD of info about ourselves VOLUNTARILY! All that G-mail (no relation to “G men” I presume) and now YouTube and Google Desktop yadda yadda … you have probably the single most significant and valuable database in the world without a doubt.

Anyhow, I digress … my point was that I know you have the ability to be watching me right now from space. And I know you have enough money to build a really cool laser gun that could also be up in the sky with your Google Earth satellites. If you have already deployed said weaponry, please do not zap me from existence just because I like to write about poker. Let me live and I will do my best to destroy all the human beings who wrongly try to put money in Pokerati’s coffers by not listening to my exaltations not to click.

Some of the stuff on my screen(s) right now / a couple days ago … none of it is really relevant any more.

The MAINSTREAM MEDIA is starting to realize … hey, wait a minute, this “enforcement act” is pretty much unenforceable (legally speaking, of course).

This coupled with the market assessment that hey, $6 BILLION IN DEMAND ain’t just goin’ away.

Meanwhile, they are starting to speak in poker metaphors in QATAR. Financial analysts are apparently spreading the word. (Can we say … وقع فى النفس الرهبة, (مرعب, مهيب Asian poker, baby!

Here’s an old CardPlayer article by MIKE SEXTON. It’s about BILLY BAXTER and his fights with the IRS in the ’80s. In both federal district court and then at the U.S. Court of Appeals, judges affirmed that poker was indeed a game of skill (and thereby taxable as income, not windfall). The Feds threatened to take it to the Supreme Court, Baxter said “bring it!”, and the government folded.

Non-poker news crossing the sightline:

HARVARD LAW preparing for more politics and international courtroom scuffles.

Enron big-man JEFFREY SKILLING didn’t cause near the fiscal damage of a BILL FRIST, but he’s getting 24 years in the slammer/Club Fed.

LORETTA NALL, Alabaman for Governor:

Early in her campaign, she talked about how her misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession in 2002 led her to start the U.S. Marijuana Party.Then she entertained readers of her campaign Web site with lots of information about her personal life, including a discussion of why she doesn’t wear panties.

Here’s a great listen — a Lou Kreiger interview on Hold’em Radio with poker-beloved Nolan Dalla and Howard Schwartz (from Poker Player Newspaper). Citizen Nolan is hyped! And a little pissed. With due cause, of course … the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is the topic. And while Nolan is no-holds-barred when it comes to pointing fingers — yes, really, to at least some extent, the UIGEA is your fault — this is probably one of the most intelligent conversations about the new poker landscape yet to be heard. (Assuming you can skip past the first couple minutes of smalltalk.)

Again, click here to listen — or better yet right-click and new-tab it if you’re a PC/Firefox person.

Am feeling very video-ish this evening … I may or may not explain why later (but it has something to do with particle physics, Ronald Reagan, and the now-defunct Superconducting Supercollider). Anyhow, have a look at some of the more relevant poker vids I’ve come across in recent days:

NOTE: These come from Bill Rini, Change100, Wicked Chops, and other link-clicky sources.

Rep. RON PAUL (R-TX), opposing anti-online gambling legislation …

Rep. BARNEY FRANK (D-MA), making some pretty strong arguments on why banning online gambling (heretofore called the UIGEA) would set some pretty bad precedents …

The MCLAUGHLIN GROUP declaring 4-1 (with PAT BUCHANAN as the lone dissenter) the UIGEA as bad legislation and insisting there’s no way it will pass …

ALT: “Wrong!

And here’s an intelligently crafted creative endeavor (by the “Association of Professional Casino Webmasters”) outlining the hypocrisy of Sen. BILL FRIST (R-TN) and Rep. BOB GOODLATTE (R-VA) …

Click here to see the other UIGEA videos created by these folks.

This kinda random fun one shows LEE JONES, poker room manager at PokerStars, taking on Frist with a big stick …

Another politician speaking out — Rep. SHELLEY BERKLEY (D-NV) making the most of her one minute at the mic …

And last but definitely not least, check out this (sorry, non-YouTubed) clip from The Daily Show revealing why GEORGE BUSH clearly doesn’t play (good) poker, but does understand collusion.

Empire Online, the place where I spent 400 hours (10 work weeks) to win $607 in 2004 is following Party’s lead and skipping Yankee-town. I probably learned more from this site than any other, but apparently they’ve got better things to do …

The first online gaming company collapse just went down … World Gaming is no longer … or at least just a shell of what it used to be.