The Hangar Poker House is a private social club. We don’t rake the pots and we offer an air of exclusivity that makes your game just what you’re looking for. Conveniently located right off 59 North and FM1960, you’ll find us by Shamrocks Pub and the Grain Cellar. On Wednesday, the law came down hard on a pair of Texas poker rooms. Around 11 a.m., Houston's Post Oak Poker Club and Prime Social Poker Club were raided by authorities and nine people arrested.
- Houston Area Poker Clubs
- Primer Social Club In Victoria Texas
- Poker Clubs Houston Tx
- Poker Clubs In Houston Tx
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Its name might be attached to the most popular form of poker, and the game’s greatest early practitioners all called the Lone Star State home, but the state of Texas has always looked at poker as an illegal activity.For decades, if you wanted to find a game of poker in Texas you’d have to locate an underground game or card room.
Thanks to a loophole in Texas law, and a group of enterprising businessmen that is beginning change.
A handful of “legal” poker rooms have begun to pop up in Texas. Whether they remain open is anyone’s guess.
The Texas gambling laws
Texas law seemingly forbids poker, and outside of charity games and unraked home games, no one has challenged Texas’s ban on for-profit poker games.
Section 47.02 of the Texas Penal Code states, it’s an offense if a person:
(3) plays and bets for money or other things of value at any game played with cards, dice, balls, or any other gambling device.
But it also states:
(b) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:
(1) the actor engaged in gambling in a private place;
(2) no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings; and
(3) except for the advantage of skill or luck, the risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all participants.
A literal reading of the law would lead you to believe, poker is a-ok, so long as:
- you’re in a private building;
- no one is profiting from hosting the game; and
- the game is fair.
How the legal card rooms work
The card rooms that are popping up in Texas are private clubs that provide rake-free poker games, as well as bridge, backgammon, chess, and beyond. Instead of a rake, which would make the game illegal per the Texas Penal Code cited above, the clubs charge membership fees, and in some cases seat rentals. The latter seems to be pushing the legality envelope even further.
Michael Eakman’s club, Mint Poker in Southeast Houston is one such example.
“In our conversations with the city attorney here in our jurisdiction, we made everyone aware of what we were doing before we even signed the lease,” Eakman told the Houston Chronicle. “I certainly don’t want to challenge anyone to bring a court case, but I think at the end of the day we’re handling this by being proactive instead of reactive is the way to do this … There are no regulations and guidelines other than the narrow scope of a very vague law.”
Of course, in addition to rake or a seat charge, the sentence, “no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings,” could cover membership fees.
Will they stay legal?
The million dollar question is: How will the Texas Legislature react to these rooms?
Another owner of a private card club, Sam VonKennel, helped create the Texas Association of Social Card Clubs to lobby the legislature.
“The Legislature hasn’t really seen it yet because it hasn’t really existed,” VonKennel told the local press. “As they pop up, I want to make sure the [legislature] is aware of them. What I would really like to do is get these guys to become licensed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and that way they’re absolutely certain they’re on the right side of the law.”
The problem is, the card rooms are new enough that they haven’t landed on the legislature’s radar yet, but like Daily Fantasy Sports, their success, and proliferation may end up being their undoing. Right now there are about a half dozen such clubs, but if they prove successful they’ll likely be popping up across the state.
University of Houston political science Professor Brandon Rottinghaus was quick to point out that being “technically legal” may not be a good enough argument, particularly in the conservative, and historically anti-gambling Texas legislature.
“It probably violates the spirit, if not the letter of the law,” Rottinghaus told the Houston Chronicle. “… in instances like that, there will definitely be a push back where the Attorney General and local law enforcement might take offense to the idea that there might be this illicit expansion of gambling, even if it’s not technically speaking illegal gambling.
“Trying to get around the law on this issue is never profitable. I think that’s the real danger that the people running these clubs have.
You may technically be in the right, but this issue is so fraught with politics and morality that you’re unlikely to succeed.”
Houston Area Poker Clubs
Even if they’re deemed legal, I would expect the legislature to look at imposing regulations and taxation/licensing fees.
A pair of Houston card rooms were raided by local law enforcement Wednesday afternoon and more crackdowns of these establishments might be on the way.
Prime Social Club and Post Oak Poker Club were raided by officers from the Vice Division of the Houston Police Department. In total, nine owners and managers were arrested on charges of money laundering and engaging in organized criminal activity.
Primer Social Club In Victoria Texas
“Poker rooms are illegal in Texas,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement. “We are changing the paradigm regarding illegal gambling by moving up the criminal chain and pursuing felony money laundering and engaging in organized crime charges against owners and operators.”
Officers seized computers and hard drives in the raid. At Prime Social Club, the raid took place just a few minutes before the start of a $580 no-limit hold’em tournament with a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told local media that this is just the start of a larger crackdown on poker rooms in Houston.
“We’re not going to tolerate it,” Acevedo told the local ABC News affiliate. “We got two of the bigger ones today and this is just the beginning. We need to shut them down. If you want to have these kind of establishments, the legislature needs to authorize it. Otherwise, we’re going to do our jobs and shut them down.”
Law enforcement clearly believes these clubs are breaking the state’s gambling laws. The operators, on the other hand, believe that they are in full compliance with state law since they don’t collect a rake. The card rooms only charge membership fees and consider themselves a private club.
Poker Clubs Houston Tx
“We’re just facilitating the play between the players,” said Daniel Kebort, one of the five owners of the Post Oak Poker Club that were arrested yesterday.
Poker Clubs In Houston Tx
Wayne Dolcefino, who worked for Prime Social Club both in researching the law before the club opened its doors and in promoting certain events, said that the idea that they are hiding a criminal operation is laughable.
“In my view, a business trying to cover their tracks wouldn’t be in a giant building on Westheimer,” said Dolcefino.
While no players were arrested, both clubs had their bank accounts and assets frozen. According to an October 2018 article from the San Antonio Express, there are “about 40” of these poker clubs operating throughout the state.