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Lodge Poker Room - Austin Texas - Raided this morning by TABC (7 Viewers)

bunsonthegrill said:
If the TABC/the courts finds that "charging membership fees and seat fees" constitutes "economic benefit", wouldn't almost all poker rooms in Texas would have to close since they basically all have the same operating model?
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Yep, could lead to that. With this action possibly serving as a precendent and the vague laws currently in place it could be just the beginning. Just takes some overly ambitious authorities and the walls could come down.
 
bunsonthegrill said:
If the TABC/the courts finds that "charging membership fees and seat fees" constitutes "economic benefit", wouldn't almost all poker rooms in Texas would have to close since they basically all have the same operating model?
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly.

I'd be making hella calls to find out whether it's safe to remain open!
 
I'm pretty sure that if this went to the courts, all the big rooms would pour money into Lodge's legal team.
 
One can seek all the legal advice available, but the core problem is the law is ambiguous. Your law firm can't say with certainty a poker room, however run, is legal in Texas. Most lawyers would advise you not to engage in the poker business in Texas due to the risk and uncertainty.

If The Lodge, its owners and managers want their day in court in needs to be understood that they could be in mortal legal peril. American and Texas "justice" begins with a massive legal threat - look at the list of prospective charges in the search warrant. Someone will be facing decades in prison under all sorts of financial and moral turpitude statutes. There is a reason why almost no one goes to trial in the USA, they plead to "lesser" charges due to the risk of losing on the whole package of charges and spending their life in the hands of the Texas Department of Corrections.

We of all groups understand how expected value works. If you want your Constitutionally protected right to a trial, you are going to often be spending a fortune in legal fees and betting a decade or more of your life that the jury finds you innocent. Let's do the math: You will spend $100,000+ on your legal defense, incur a 5% chance of a 10+ year prison term or you can plead no-contest to a misdemeanor, no jail, no expenses, forfeit your seized money and agree to close the Lodge (which is effectively closed anyway). There are good reasons why innocent people plead guilty. And this is not a slam dunk innocent case; the law is grey and untested in court.

Could all the poker rooms band together and help pay the legal costs? Of course they could. Perhaps even likely. But the group can't out spend the State of Texas in court. And if someone is going to be convicted of a felony, it isn't going to be a shared responsibility.

Perhaps the owner and management of the Lodge will fight all the way to a criminal trial with a jury. If so, please respect the risk being taken. It could be life changing -=- DrStrange
 
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There’s notably a WSOP circuit event about to start next week in the exact same county as the Lodge. As far as I can tell, it has not been cancelled. I would have lost that bet had I made one (and I would have made such a bet in a private place of course).

Up further north in the Dallas area, I’ve noticed a couple significant procedure changes since the raids. Maybe I posted it already here I can’t remember.

1) check in at palace is now downstairs right at the door, you are forced to check in
2) check in at TCH Irving is now also at the door with security…you can’t get in and head to the bar or restrooms without a membership.
3) palace had a conspicuous disclaimer separating the tourney buy in from the access fee

Don’t know if these will matter but it’s nice to see them taking some precautions, and after being charged for playing in one of these card rooms once (your boy beat the case!) more ammo for the defense, the better
 
Frogzilla said:
There’s notably a WSOP circuit event about to start next week in the exact same county as the Lodge. As far as I can tell, it has not been cancelled. I would have lost that bet had I made one (and I would have made such a bet in a private place of course).
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There's also the upcoming televised and streaming PGT High Roller series and the Texas Poker Open coming up at the Champions Club in Houston... that's obviously in a different county than The Lodge in Austin, and I don't know what DA Sean Teare is like in Harris County, but it certainly makes the road ahead for card room poker in Texas a bit more scary.
 
bunsonthegrill said:
If the TABC/the courts finds that "charging membership fees and seat fees" constitutes "economic benefit", wouldn't almost all poker rooms in Texas would have to close since they basically all have the same operating model?
Click to expand...

I doubt TABC, or any jurisdiction in TX for that matter, actually wants this going to trial. Such a determination and closure of all similar facilities would end tens of millions of dollars (or more) the state is currently enjoying in annual tax revenues from these operations.

The unclear “economic benefit” text (which, ironically, the state is also benefitting from) allows them to keep the dollars rolling in, while targeting the rooms they don’t want (for whatever reason; laundering, alcohol violations, etc.).

I personally believe the text is (was) a carve-out for private/social home games and country club type locker rooms to avoid legal fracas from small/occasional poker play. But once the state realized they could make hay off 24-hour dedicated poker halls, it seems they decided to let (some of) them slide, all without the statewide PR fallout of having openly "legalized" gambling.

I can only assume Polk ruffled the wrong feathers to have brought down the strong arm of the law.

IMG_0753.gif
 
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toothpic said:
This is in Williamson county too. Travis county is the one where Austin is, Williamson is a north of Travis and has always been tougher.
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I realized I was mistakened when I said this. I hadn't realized that NW Austin falls into Williamson county as well so TCH is actually in Williamson and NOT Travis county.

When I was younger I remembered "don't get in trouble in Round Rock because that's Williamson county and they don't take shit.". Good thing I just went the route of not getting in trouble at all
 
Yup, they're going to have a $50,000 GTD "Freeroll" at 6:15pm that night according to Atlas (which is a Tuesday night, their Tuesday tournament used to be MASSIVE so it has some sentimental value for them)

You can buyin for just the $30 access fee (yeah, I know, freeroll has been bastardized in Texas) and then there's plenty of rebuys and add-ons that can come into play. But still expect them to be packed.
 

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