Poker champ: Gambling raid a waste

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Poker champ: Gambling raid a waste
Estes Thompson, The Associated Press

RALEIGH - A poker champion cited on a misdemeanor gambling charge in a weekend raid on a clandestine casino said Tuesday that the police could have been more useful battling serious crime elsewhere.

Maciek "Michael" Gracz, 26, a World Series of Poker winner from Raleigh, said it was a waste of tax dollars for more than a dozen officers to spend about eight hours at the scene Saturday night and early Sunday.

"They could go catch sexual predators or something that has a real impact on society," he said. "If they had gotten two guys to come there, they could have asked us to leave the premises, and we would have left.

"It is illegal in North Carolina, I understand that. In every state, whether it's legal or not, people are playing poker."

Gracz said it's silly that he can't play poker in North Carolina when he can travel just a few hours and play legally elsewhere. Gracz won $1.5 million during a cruise at the PartyPoker.com Million Tournament in 2005. He also writes poker tips on CBS.Sportsline.com and his own Web site.

Officials said the operation was sophisticated. The plain, one-story building off N.C. 242 near Benson was surrounded by a fence, had pro-style gaming tables and a kitchen and food staff. Agents seized about $70,000 in cash.

"This wasn't a basement card game," said Pat Forbis, a supervisory agent of the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement, describing it as "a small version of a Las Vegas or Atlantic City casino. It was all top-of-the-line stuff."

Forbis said 60 people were charged with engaging in a game of chance, or gambling, and 11 were charged with operating a game of chance.

"The point is it is illegal," he said. "The analogy is if you catch someone smoking marijuana they say why aren't you trying to get a coke or heroin dealer. The law is the law, and it's not up to ALE to systematically choose the laws we enforce."

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