Review of Texas Poker Raids and Legislation

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Poker Rooms Raise Concerns

Dallas: Players upset about raids; some locals want halls to stay closed
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Poker players grumbling over police raids that shut down a veterans' Texas hold 'em game and other card-playing joints are hoping for relief from a bill that would expand legalized poker rooms.

Police say the April 14 raid on the Audie Murphy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1837 in Far East Dallas was spurred by neighborhood complaints, which they say are the driving force behind the past year's stepped-up enforcement of illegal poker rooms.

So far this year, vice detectives have cited players or operators at four poker rooms, the same number as all of last year. At least 79 people have received citations for playing or operating games.

In 2006, 147 poker players received Class C misdemeanor gambling tickets, which carry a maximum of a $500 fine. Thirty-five people accused of running the joints were arrested for Class A misdemeanors.

In 2005, police raided only one poker operation.

"The law is on the books," said Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of Dallas' vice and narcotics detectives. "The Police Department doesn't have much choice. What are we going to do, ignore this?"

Bob Hinton, an attorney representing the VFW, said post members busted in the raid "are harmless people trying to do something for a good cause." He said he seriously doubts that residents are in an uproar over illegal poker rooms in Dallas.

Chief Bernal said that in all four cases this year, operators of the games were all taking a cut of the poker pots, known as a "rake," which makes them illegal.

"I'd much rather go after people who are running prostitution and narcotics," he said, adding that he hopes the raids will persuade players to cease breaking the law.

"The more gambling operations I have to contend with, the less resources I have to deal with our higher-priority operations."

Mr. Hinton said his clients "don't take a rake. They are given donations. The rest goes to charity."

Chief Bernal "doesn't have Ross Perot beating down his door demanding that these people stop playing $30-a-night poker," he said. "My heart goes out to Bernal. He's got to say something. But that's bull about concerned citizens."

Shocked by raids

For poker players, the raids can be jarring.

"They busted open a window and came through there," said lawyer Wes Holmes, one of the 23 people cited for playing poker at Jackie's on Forest Lane in November. "I was sitting at the table with two women in their 50s or early 60s. They were bawling, shaking and crying. There were screams. It was a mess."

Unlike most accused players, who plead guilty and pay a fine generally under $500, Mr. Holmes said he has pleaded not guilty because he didn't know the house was taking a rake.

Poker enthusiast Dan Michalski said he can see plenty of things he'd rather see police doing besides writing tickets and arresting his friends for playing poker.

"We're surrounded by drugs and gangs and prostitution" in the Munger Place neighborhood where he lives in Old East Dallas. "There's plenty of gunfire. It would be nice if it stopped."

For the thousands of poker players who regularly log onto his Web site, Pokerati.com, the Dallas raids have been a hot topic for a year. For many, the VFW was a low blow.

"These guys fought for our country," wrote one player who claims to have been at the VFW when it was busted. "The 'V' was the 'Cheers' of places to play poker and will be sadly missed."

VFW members declined to publicly comment on the advice of Mr. Hinton.

But some say their game is not very different from the many well-publicized Texas hold 'em tournaments benefiting charities all over town.

"The issue is that in those games you make a donation to the charity and they give you chips," Chief Bernal said. "You cannot cash your chips in and get anything back – win, lose or draw. The VFW had cash games, and they knew they were illegal."

Tips on the rise

Last year, Dallas vice received 50 complaints about illegal gambling, which also includes tips on eight-liner rooms, Chief Bernal said. That was more than double the number from a year prior.

So far this year, there have been 31 complaints. The department could not say how many of these complaints applied specifically to poker.

Tips are increasing, police say, as the number of poker rooms grows because of the popularity of Texas hold 'em, the card game driving a multibillion-dollar annual industry across the U.S.

In 2006, the four raids conducted by Dallas vice mostly were in northwestern Dallas near Stemmons Freeway, according to police.

The VFW bust on a recent Saturday night was part of this year's first round of raids – which have concentrated on East Dallas.

Forty-seven players at the VFW were cited, as well as a dozen operators. Police seized a dozen poker tables and $6,882 from the post, which is tucked into a shopping center on Lakeland Drive at Ferguson Road between a hair shop and a defunct dollar store.

The night before, vice also hit the AMVETS Post 106 a mile and a half east on Ferguson Road, writing nine gambling tickets and seizing seven tables. Officers confiscated $776. A pool hall a few doors down in the same rundown Oates Plaza shopping center was also cited for running a gambling operation, police said.

It turns out that, while some of the folks inside the AMVETS may have been veterans, the post was not a full-fledged post. Its charter is pending, said officials with the group's state headquarters in Dallas.

Vice had been to the AMVETS location before. In late January, before the veterans logo went up, police seized 22 eight-liner machines and $3,376. Investigators say gambling outfits sometimes purport to be – or actually apply and secure charters to be – affiliates of real organizations in order to appear legitimate.

No one at the AMVETS location could be reached for comment.

'I'm afraid'

While several neighbors said the poker and eight-liner operations at the Oates Plaza shopping center didn't bother them, one longtime resident said she was fed up.

The woman, who didn't want her name used, said the operations attract scofflaws and generally run down the neighborhood.

"It's like a little Las Vegas," she said. "I've had bottles thrown in my yard. I've been here 42 years. I'm afraid. I didn't used to be."

Susan Walker, a community activist who lives near the Audie Murphy VFW, has been involved in efforts to clean up the Ferguson Road corridor.

"I applaud the police department for listening to our reports and doing their job," she said. "Letting illegal gambling halls exist in your back yard invites other types of more serious crime."

But Kaye Bradley, who lives down the street from the AMVETS post, says problems have nothing to do with illegal gambling.

"We have more trouble with the fights at the washateria than with the AMVETS post," she said. "As long as they're not hurting people, who the hell cares."

The raids have forced some players to give up on the North Texas underground scene, consisting of an estimated 200 poker operations, opting instead for legal games in Oklahoma or Louisiana.

The long drives may not be necessary for long if House Bill 3186, which would expand legalized poker rooms, becomes law. Last week, the proposal, sponsored by Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, was voted out of committee and was being considered for a vote by the full House.

Lawmakers have through Monday to move the bill forward, said Don Jones, a former reserve deputy and spokesman for Mr. Menendez's office.

He said the bill has faced little active opposition, and some police officers have expressed their support for it – albeit privately.

"We respect the fact that the police organizations can't come forward and support us," he said. "We haven't had any police group come in here and tell us they oppose this, that they love busting these rooms."

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