{"id":199138,"date":"2022-01-25T09:48:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T17:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=199138"},"modified":"2022-01-25T13:17:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T21:17:05","slug":"dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Poker Room Ordered to Close as City Attorney Suddenly Changes Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dallas cardroom has received notice that its permit to operate in the city has been revoked, just months after obtaining approval from city officials.<\/p>\n

\"Texas
Poker players at the Texas Card House, which has been ordered to close just months after getting the green light from the city. The card room remains open and plans to appeal the decision. (Image: sportsvideo.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ryan Crow, CEO of the Texas Card House, told local CBS affiliate KTVT he had received a letter informing him he was \u201ckeeping a gambling place,\u201d and would have to close.<\/p>\n

\n

City Councilman Omar Narvaez, who represents the neighborhood and supports the card room, said Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso had \u201cunfortunately \u2026 decided to change the idea of what he believes constitutes card rules according to the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Two other poker rooms operate in Dallas, although it\u2019s currently unclear whether they have received similar notices.<\/p>\n

Hold\u2019em? Not in Texas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Texas may have lent its name to poker\u2019s most popular variant, Texas Hold\u2019em, which was pioneered by old Texas road gamblers like Doyle Brunson, \u201cAmarillo Slim\u201d Preston, and Johnny Moss. But historically, it\u2019s been difficult to get a game in the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, it’s also difficult to get a game of Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska, although they\u2019re working on it<\/a>. Fortunately, Council Bluffs, Iowa, has several casinos and is pretty much the same city.<\/p>\n

Until recently in Texas, the only venue where you could play legally was the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, way down by the Rio Grande border with Mexico. The casino, based on the Kickapoo reservation, is the only legal casino in the whole state, although two other tribes are working on it.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

But over the past few years, several dozen poker rooms have sprung up across Texas — in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, and elsewhere. Sometimes these operate in a gray area of the law. But the Texas Card House thought it had squared its operations with the city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Crow told CBS he had attended many long meetings with city officials in 2020 before it ultimately approved his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent about two-and-a-half years trying to find a location that we could open that the city approved of,\u201d Crow said.<\/p>\n

Legal Loophole<\/h2>\n

Texas card rooms operate via a \u201cloophole\u201d in Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code.<\/p>\n

The statute states that \u201cit is a defense to prosecution\u201d if \u201cthe actor engaged in gambling in a private place [which includes a club]; no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings; [and] except for the advantage of skill or luck, the risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, the card clubs argue that by refraining from acting as \u201cthe house,\u201d i.e., raking the pot, they are not infringing the law. Instead, they charge players by the hour to be present at the venue.<\/p>\n

\u2018Someone\u2019s Making Money\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But not everyone is buying it. Dallas City Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn told Spectrum News<\/em> in July that she was pushing for the City Attorney\u2019s Office to take another look at the clubs’ legal status in Dallas.<\/p>\n

And so literally the part that makes this illegal, from what I read, I’m not an attorney \u2014 is that somebody is making money in these establishments,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether that’s food sales, alcohol sales, renting a chair, a fee to walk in the door, somebody is making money off of poker.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about a game in somebody’s home \u2014 which I have no problem with \u2014 nobody’s making money other than the players themselves, which is legal in Texas,” she continued.<\/p>\n

Crow says Texans will always play poker, and he wants to provide them with a safe environment. He plans to appeal.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dallas cardroom has received notice that its permit to operate in the city has been revoked, just months after obtaining approval from city officials. Ryan Crow, CEO of the Texas Card House, told local CBS affiliate KTVT he had received a letter informing him he was \u201ckeeping a gambling place,\u201d and would have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":199139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDallas Poker Room Ordered to Close as City Attorney Changes Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Texas Card House, a poker room in Dallas, must close because Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso has decided to change the law.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dallas Poker Room Ordered to Close as City Attorney Changes Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Texas Card House, a poker room in Dallas, must close because Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso has decided to change the law.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-25T17:48:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-25T21:17:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/texas.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/\",\"name\":\"Dallas Poker Room Ordered to Close as City Attorney Changes Law\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/texas.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-25T17:48:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-25T21:17:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"The Texas Card House, a poker room in Dallas, must close because Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso has decided to change the law.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/dallas-poker-room-ordered-to-close-as-city-attorney-changes-law\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/texas.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/texas.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":700,\"caption\":\"Poker players at the Texas Card House, which has been ordered to close just months after getting the green light from the city. 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