Poker Room In Plano Tx
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Poker Clubs: The best poker rooms in Plano Additional options are available by the various poker clubs & poker rooms with events in and around Plano. In Plano there is a diverese poker room landscape with regular tournaments with non-cash prizes. Poker Clubs: The best poker rooms in Plano. Additional options are available by the various poker clubs & poker rooms with events in and around Plano. In Plano there is a diverese poker room landscape with regular tournaments with non-cash prizes. Here is a good list.
Its name might be attached to the most popular form of poker, and the game’s greatest early practitioners all called theRooms For Rent Plano
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.
Rooms For Rent Plano Texas
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.”
Even if they’re deemed legal, I would expect the legislature to look at imposing regulations and taxation/licensing fees.
Gambling is illegal in Texas.
But poker clubs across the state are using a loophole to their advantage.
In North Texas, several business owners have tried their hand at the idea, and lost.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“Everything was absolutely perfect,” said Jody Wheeler, co-owner of FTN Poker in McKinney.
Since opening September 15, he says poker players have lined up for seats at the tables. Now, chairs around those tables sit empty.
“I feel heartbroken,” he said. “I really tried to start a successful business and couldn't do it.'
Wheeler folded Monday after learning from McKinney police he could face charges for operating illegally.
“They simply asked me that I shut down voluntarily,” Wheeler explained.
FTN Poker isn't alone.
Poker Rooms of Texas in Plano, which opened earlier this year, is also closed.
The reason comes down to how the law is interpreted.
“We set it up just like if you were at a country club,” Wheeler said.
Plano Tx News
Texas's gambling law says only bet winners -- not businesses -- can benefit economically from gambling.
Wheeler insists he wasn't saying his money came from a fee charged at the door.
Poker Rooms In Plano Tx
“I still believe that today that we were operating within the law,” he said.
With hundreds of thousands of dollars already invested, he says a legal challenge was too much to take on.
He’s now trying to sublet the property and sell tens of thousands of dollars of equipment.
“I am going to look for ways to get involved at a state level because I believe that's our only step,” he said.
An official with the Texas Attorney General's Office acknowledged they've had discussions about private poker clubs, but stopped short of saying whether they're legal or illegal.
Instead, they highlighted state statute and the requirements it lays out for allowable gambling.