Poker Clubs Houston

Poker Rooms in Houston on YP.com. See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Casinos in Houston, TX. There’s a long history in Houston of poker played in underground games, which have no semblance of legality. The clubs are played in the shadows, away from the big blue lettering donning the tan. Poker clubs and rooms in Houston Those who like poker in Houston will find our resource useful as all the info that they might need is gathered in one place. In order to be aware of all the poker events, we keep the list of all operating poker clubs and rooms in Houston and the list of games they host.

52 Social Houston
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The saga of the city of Houston and itspoker clubs has to be one of the top stories of 2019. With arrests made andallegations of illegal money laundering, it seemed as if law enforcement hadthe upper hand. With the collapse of the case against those clubs, however, itis now pulling back the curtain on the legal system in Houston and thepoliticians and attorneys who were involved and roiling the political system.

Latest Actions Affecting Texas Politics

After learning that an advisor, AmirMireskandari, to Houston District Attorney Kim Ugg had been involved with two Houstonpoker clubs – the Post Oak Poker Club and the Prime Social Poker Club – chargeshad to be dropped by Ugg because of a conflict of interest. According toreports, Mireskandari allegedly was paid a fee to write legislation that would easethe way for the two businesses to become legally licensed in the city for theiroperations. While Mireskandari continues to deny these allegations, otherpeople in the Texas political scene are feeling the heat from their associationswith Mireskandari.

Accordingto reports from the Houston Chronicle and reporter Zach Despart, Mireskandariwas a prominent booster in campaigns for several Democratic politicians in thecity and county. Such people as Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Harris CountyCommissioner Adrian Garcia, Texas Attorney General candidate Justin Nelson andothers were introduced by Mireskandari to operators of the poker clubs inquestion. Photos at the Chronicle show two of the owners of Post OakPoker Club posing with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in December 2018,although Turner denies ever meeting the men.

These men and others are now disavowing anyassociation with Mireskandari or the poker club owners. Fort Bend CountryDistrict Attorney Brian Middleton was one of the most vehement deniers, remarkingin Despart’s article that, if he had known that Mireskandari was involved withthe poker clubs, he “wouldn’t have had anything to do with him. Period.”Middleton also returned a $15,000 contribution from Mireskandari’s politicalaction committee (PAC) Texans for Fairness

Good Investigation or Keystone Kops?

The entire Houston situation has eitherbeen one of solid, investigative work by law enforcement or a Keystone Kopsroutine that went awry. InMay, police stormed the Post Oak Poker Club and Prime Social Poker Club,taking in nine people who were either the owners of said clubs or employed asmanagement by the clubs. None of the patrons in the clubs at the time werearrested, but other card rooms in the state of Texas took note and some suspendedtheir operations.

Things began to unravel for Ogg and theHouston authorities in July. Investigationrevealed the alliance between Mireskandari and the two poker clubs, includinghis work regarding lobbying for the regulation of their businesses. After furtherexamination, Ogg was forced to drop the charges against the owners and managersand return more than $200,000 in cash that was seized in the raids (Ogg didforward the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, however). Thenext month, Harris County officials were forced to drop “nuisance” chargesagainst the two operations. The reason for the cancelation was that, without acriminal case to back them up, the “nuisance” violations could not be provenand, thus, prosecuted, although they can be refiled at any time.

The debacle in Houston has also brought the focus of the national media. New Yorker magazine published a lengthy story, detailing out the efforts of Mireskandari and the number of politicians and law enforcement personnel he has been able to sidle up beside. It also probes the birth of the Texas poker clubs and why they believe that they are legal, despite what the law might say.

Whether this is the end of the Houston story remains to be seen. One thing that DAs hate the most is being shown up by someone they’re prosecuting, and the Houston poker clubs have certainly done that. But Prime Social isn’t letting the case go either, suing one of their former attorneys for $1 million for misrepresentation, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty regarding their work in getting regulations passed. We may not have written the final words on the Houston poker club scene just yet.

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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

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(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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.