The Houston Police Department has fired back at Pokerati\’s assertion that the SWAT team was necessary for their raid on The Palms.
HPD\’s Vice Division was so concerned about being able to get inside what they said was an illegal poker room, SWAT was called in to make sure the raid went off without a hitch.
This wasn’t an easy place to get into. The door was secured with locks and you had to have a special card to get in.
And a security company had been hired to watch the place from the outside.
Police tell us this was a place to play high dollar poker. Texas Hold \’Em poker to be exact.
OK, fair enough … but they still haven\’t provided a breakdown of what a month-long undercover investigation followed by a SWAT-team break-in costs. And yet they are warning players that this was just the beginning of their crackdown — more raids to come. OK, OK, we believe you. (Again, we\’ve seen it all before.) But knowing in advance (with near-certainty) the results of these newfound misdemeanor cases, all we can say is too bad the elected and appointed officials with influence on police budgets apparently don\’t understand the concept of \”leaks.\” But such is the state of Texas, at least for another couple years.
By the way … the most curious claim (to me) about this bust:
The division says its investigation revealed that the house, actually the operators and owners of the poker room, were taking in about $10 a night.
I mean really … if that number were accurate, would it even count?
UPDATE: That was a KHOU typo. The claim is that The Palms took in $10,000 a night.