first-hand account of a home game raid

[machinelf]

Reno 911 (The home game) « Ksnydersj’s Weblog

Forgot to add this second link:

San Francisco Poker Meetup Group Busted! - POKERadical

[whataboutj]

Crazy to say the least. That is one of the reasons I would get a little Skiddish about going to a fairly large home game like that
Thanks for posting the blog/article

[Wedge Rock]

Interesting. Thanks for posting the blog.

[reotexas]

Sounds like intimidation to me.

If you read the blogs you can see that on several occasions the cops played there undercover. Then after the third time they raid the place but let everyone go without doing anything? Obviously nothing illegal was going on or they would have made arrests. Surely after three visits they should be able to tell whether the game was illegal or legal. The fact that the cops said it could be robbers busting in on your instead of us is indicative of their knowledge that they were wrong and wanting to scare the players.

I would love to see the justification for the raid and search. If there wasn't false allegations in the search warrant I would be surprised. In fact, if the undercover officers did visit three times and found no criminal activity and then massaged the facts there is a potential lawsuit here (I used to be a lawyer).

[nianticcardplayer]

While it sucks for those that were present...it does appear that a law was violated......Now while everyone wants to crucify police...one thing must be understood here. Most police agencies in the US are understaffed....so they will not go out and look for the gambling...until they receive a complaint about some one losing their paycheck at the game.....I know it sounds goofy but we have police officer's that play in our group(we take no rake and everyone BYOB to include snacks), and this is pretty much what they always say...There's a card room in town they all know about and would love to play at but don't because it's illegal, and it pretty much runs until some slob loses his paycheck....and then the wife calls the cops and the rest is history......

[Nexttime]

Originally Posted by nianticcardplayer

..until they receive a complaint about some one losing their paycheck at the game...

I have to agree with this part. Interestingly enough, it's not always the person who lost the money who reports the game. The guy who lost the money may want to try to win it back. It can be the wife/girlfriend, etc who make the call, because they are p*ssed (and rightly so, the guy was probably an idiot). The other concern is if some street urchin gets popped for something else and says "Hey, I know about an underground game, what can I get in return?".

I've posted before on this subject. One raid on a game a few years ago was interesting. They knocked on the door, said "Can we look around the house?". The guy running the game, said "Sure, no problem.". The vice cops looked around the house, came back to the room with the table(s) and said "We were looking for guns, drugs and prostitution. We don't care if you play cards. Have a nice night." and then they and walked out.

Someone had made a call. The LEO were just doing their job. Someone asked the one who did all the talking what they would have done if they weren't let into the house to look around. He said they would have just waited outside and stopped players as they were walking to their car and talked to them one at a time.

There is a reason I do not run a cash game. I don't need the stress.


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[Harlequin011]

Originally Posted by nianticcardplayer

it does appear that a law was violated......

I know it sounds goofy but we have police officer's that play in our group(we take no rake and everyone BYOB to include snacks), and this is pretty much what they always say...

I don't see where it is clearly defined that these players ever violated any law. The first blog says a collection for food and drinks was taken. No word about a forced one or not.

Last time I checked it wasn't illegal to chip in for food. Otherwise I'd have been arrested on every date I ever had.

[djexacto]

It says it was an end-of-year freeroll or something to that effect. I would assume that the host took a portion of previous pots to fund the freeroll, which could be seen as raking the pot, i guess

[Harlequin011]

Originally Posted by djexacto

It says it was an end-of-year freeroll or something to that effect. I would assume that the host took a portion of previous pots to fund the freeroll, which could be seen as raking the pot, i guess

It is my impression that if 100% of the money is returned to players then it is legit.

[Nexttime]

Originally Posted by Harlequin011

It is my impression that if 100% of the money is returned to players then it is legit.

Many laws prohibit "profit from gambling". The problem is that if your DA says that accepting money for food, drink, etc can 'profiting from gambling'. The profit part does not have to be from taking money during the game or accepting tips. That's why taking anything from the players is risky, no matter how to 'take' it. It's all a matter of how visible your game is, if there is an election year, did someone lose money and decided to call the game into the authorities, etc.