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News Harris County Sues To Shut Down Poker Clubs Investigated By Houston Police. County Attorney Vince Ryan alleges that the Post Oak Poker Club and the Prime Social Club are open seven days a. Photo: JERRY LARA / San Antonio Express-News 2 of 10 Justin Werner concentrates during a game of Texas Hold em at Rounders Card Club, Sunday, Oct. In the last year, about a dozen poker. Yet another facet of ensuring a positive player experience at our Houston poker room is transparency. We offer transparent pricing by offering real-time updates on number of Entries, Rebuys, Re-Entries (if applicable), and Add-Ons, as well as a precise chip count during poker tournaments.
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.
There is something fishy going on with poker clubs in Texas. And it smells like an elaborate scare tactic along with some unethical behavior…on the part of people associated with the District Attorney’s office.
Texas authorities raided two of the most well-known poker clubs in Houston in early May and charged the owners and managers with a plethora of serious crimes. People were arrested and spent time in jail, hired lawyers, and didn’t garner any income from the closed clubs for months.
Midway through July, all charges against the poker room owners and managers were dropped.
But that may not be the end of this increasingly complicated story.
This is a Raid!
It happened on May 1 at the Post Oak Poker Club and Prime Social Poker Club, both located in Houston. The Harris County District Attorney’s office and the Houston Police Department raided both of the clubs, arrested nine people, froze company bank accounts, and seized bank balances.
These were the people taken into custody:
Post Oak Poker Club:
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–Daniel Jeffery Kebort, owner
–William Jack Heuer III, owner
–Alan Harris Chodrow, owner
–Sergio Diaz Cabrera, owner
–Kevin Louis Chodrow, owner
Prime Social Poker Club:
–Dan Maddox, owner
–Mary Switzer, comptroller
–Brent J. Pollack, general manager
–Steven Farshid, assistant general manager
This changes things a bit in the South Texas poker club scene. Will be interesting to see what more develops –> Police raid 2 poker rooms, arrest nine https://t.co/SPUZUPW5tp via @ABC13Houston
— Sean Chaffin (@PokerTraditions) May 1, 2019
Charges against them included felony money laundering and engagement in organized crime, reportedly the results of a two-year investigation. District Attorney Kim Ogg noted, “Poker rooms are illegal in the state of Texas.”
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And Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, “We can’t allow illegal gambling to go on. It drives organized crime and fuels other criminal activity.”
Never Mind
On July 16, all of the charges were dropped for all nine people. Ogg’s office was preparing to return $206,000 seized during the raids.
The DA’s office said the dismissal of the charges was a result of “multiple potential conflicts of interest” within her office. While one was a “potential defense witness who is a former contract employee and a political fundraiser,” the other conflicts were not detailed.
The prosecutions of Prime Social Poker Club and another game room?, which also said it was pitched on the $250k scheme by the consultant, Amir Mireskandari, collapsed yesterday when Ogg dismissed charges against 9 people, citing a conflict re Mireskandarihttps://t.co/WiIW8uThcD
— Zach Despart?️ (@zachdespart) July 18, 2019
What is known is that the cases have been referred to the FBI for further investigation, and the clubs are preparing to reopen.
Possible Legal Action
Lawyers for the Prime Social Poker Club spoke to the media a day after the charges were dropped to talk about the damage done to the people working there. Attorney Wayne Dolcefino said more than 100 employees lost their jobs at Prime Social alone after the raids.
But the situation took another turn when ABC13 began to report on a deeper investigation.
As it turned out, those arrested from both poker rooms began to talk during their time in jail after the raids, and they came to some realizations. Most importantly, both clubs were approached by the same group of people, all of whom were requesting large sums of money ($250,000) to help them legitimize their clubs in the eyes of Texas law. They were promised permits, legal assistance, and legislation.
Poker room attorneys claim some of that money was paid to a man named Amir Mireskandari, but it turned out that the man was also working with the Harris County DA’s office to investigate financial crimes by those same poker rooms.
Prime Social paid some of the money requested, though Post Oak did not. But when representatives from both clubs began talking in jail on May 1, they realized that something was wrong.
Attorney Joe Magliolo for Prime Social asserted, “We believe we were victims of a fraud, much as I believe the DA’s office were victims of a fraud.”
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Operating In and Around Rules
Technically, poker is not legal in Texas.
More specifically, making money from poker is not legal in Texas.
Poker room operators have found ways, in recent years, to circumvent that law…by not making a profit from the games themselves, i.e. not collecting rake.
People have opened clubs – more than 30 of them operating around Texas today – that operate as private, membership-based organizations. People can become a member of the club for a fee, which allows them to play tournaments without commission and cash poker games without rake. Players sometimes also pay seat rental fees, the proceeds from which make food and drink available for club members.
So far, there have been legal matters and talk of clarifications to state laws, but nothing has come to fruition. This allows the current state of affairs to continue, with clubs operating in somewhat legal territory but susceptible to raids such as the one that took place on May 1.
As of now, Post Oak and Prime Social plan to reopen later this summer. The FBI is being encouraged to investigate the conflicts within the DA’s office. And the game of skill that is poker continues to be played, both at poker clubs and underground.