RE: Armed Robbery in Austin, Too
The armed robbery of what looks like probably a 5/10 game was the lead story on KXAN’s 6 pm broadcast … and they spoke to longtime friend of Pokerati (and Texas state director of the PPA) Lavigne in Austin about the robbery at the Gaines Ranch Apartments for the skinny on what’s really at stake with these masked gunmen poker things:
“From what I understand, investigators are at a stalemate,” said Commander Chris Noble with APD’s organized crime division. “The victim is not being cooperative.”
But, Mike Lavigne, the Texas State Director for the Poker Players Alliance , blames antiquated laws for the robbers’ success and the unsolved crimes.
“A lot of times people don’t even call the cops if these places get busted by a thief because it’s not legal for them to be necessarily running that room in the first place,” Lavigne said.
[…]
“It’s not seen as a crime in most parts of the world,” said Lavigne. “It just happens to be the leftovers from some old laws in Texas. It’s not clear what’s legal or illegal in our state right now.”
UPDATE: Here’s the video:
Erik says:
December 21st, 2009 at 5:53pm
I frequent several of the games in Austin and I’m surprised this happened. Most of the games I go to have heavy armed security.
David Ring says:
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:20pm
I’m new to Austin, Eric, where and when do you guys play?
jimmy says:
January 5th, 2010 at 4:20pm
Too many of the rooms in Austin are shady and have a bunch of riff raff coming in at all hours of the night. Much better to play at daytime games that have a tightly controlled guest list and end early. I dont get to play much anymore but when I do I know that there’s always a well run 1-2 game in my hood that starts at noon and ends by 10pm, and they dont allow a bunch of ghetto-ass gangbangers in the door.
DanM says:
January 5th, 2010 at 4:23pm
i look forward to the day when poker tournaments can be something Do512 pushes.