{"id":244661,"date":"2022-11-22T14:26:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=244661"},"modified":"2022-11-22T15:30:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T21:30:08","slug":"texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill filed in the Texas legislature would close an alleged loophole in the state\u2019s penal code<\/a> that has spawned a thriving poker club scene in cities throughout the state.<\/p>\n

\"Texas
Texas State Rep. Jean Wu, above, claims the Texas Penal Code intended to permit private home games and not \u201cprivate\u201d commercial enterprises, like the Texas Card House. (Image: Houston Chronicle<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) says his bill would clarify a gray area of the law and force the clubs to close permanently.<\/p>\n

The so-called loophole — or, more accurately, defense against prosecution used by the clubs — relates to the definition of the term \u201cprivate place,\u201d or lack thereof.<\/p>\n

\n

Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code states: \u201cIt is a defense to prosecution [for gambling]\u201d if \u201cthe actor engaged in gambling [is] in a private place; 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<\/div>\n

The poker rooms claim that they are private clubs. They say they don\u2019t act as the house because they don\u2019t take a rake. Instead, customers pay by the hour to be at the venue.<\/p>\n

Private Enterprise<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wu\u2019s bill would amend the term \u201cprivate place\u201d to \u201cprivate residence.\u201d This would exclude \u201cstreets, highways, restaurants, taverns, nightclubs, schools, hospitals, and the common areas of apartment houses, hotels, motels, office buildings, transportation facilities, and shops,\u201d according to the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese legal defenses were written to allow for legal private gaming in the state without authorizing commercial operations,\u201d Wu told The Dallas Observer<\/em>. \u201cIn recent years, these defenses have been used to create private poker clubs that attempt to operate within their language, while creating for-profit gaming enterprises.<\/p>\n

Since it is likely that creating a licensing process to regulate these clubs is not politically achievable in our current Legislature, we believe that clarifying the law in this manner is the only way to eliminate the confusion around these clubs,\u201d Wu added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dallas\u2019 first \u201clegal\u201d poker club, The Texas Card House, entered a lease agreement in December 2019 and received city-issued certification in October 2020. In January 2022, it suddenly received notice that it was \u201ckeeping a gambling place.\u201d The city revoked the club\u2019s permit 15 months after it had signed it off.<\/p>\n

It seems Dallas City Attorney Chris Caso had decided there was a change of plan.<\/p>\n

Clubs Prepare to Fight Back<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last month, a Dallas County Court judge upheld city officials\u2019 decision to revoke the club\u2019s license of occupancy, forcing it to close. The club has asked the court<\/a> for a stay of execution.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the club\u2019s owner, Ryan Crow, told The Dallas Observer<\/em> he\u2019s working with other poker rooms to establish an association to fight challenges from Wu and others.<\/p>\n

We have a couple of bills we plan to submit as well and, of course, we\u2019re going to be talking to representatives about [Wu\u2019s] and hopefully making sure it doesn\u2019t pass,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat bill would put thousands of people out of a job \u2026 and also push tens of thousands of poker players back underground into illegal games,” he added. “So, hopefully, we can get that message to the legislators and they agree it\u2019s not a good idea to push that bill through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill filed in the Texas legislature would close an alleged loophole in the state\u2019s penal code that has spawned a thriving poker club scene in cities throughout the state. State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) says his bill would clarify a gray area of the law and force the clubs to close permanently. The so-called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":244663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83771,61],"tags":[83862,81907,82459,83627],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.\" \/>\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\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/\" \/>\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=\"2022-11-22T20:26:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-22T21:30:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"816\" \/>\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\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/\",\"name\":\"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-22T20:26:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-22T21:30:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":816,\"caption\":\"Texas State Rep. Jean Wu, above, claims the Texas Penal Code intended to permit private home games and not \u201cprivate\u201d commercia enterprises, like the Texas Card House. (Image: Houston Chronicle)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poker\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling","description":"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling","og_description":"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-11-22T20:26:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-22T21:30:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":816,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/","name":"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-22T20:26:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-22T21:30:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Texas poker rooms like Texas Card House face existential threat from State Rep. Gene Wu\u2019s bill to close loophole in penal code.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jean-Wu.jpg","width":1200,"height":816,"caption":"Texas State Rep. Jean Wu, above, claims the Texas Penal Code intended to permit private home games and not \u201cprivate\u201d commercia enterprises, like the Texas Card House. (Image: Houston Chronicle)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-poker-rooms-threatened-by-bill-to-amend-legal-code-on-gambling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Poker","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Texas Poker Rooms Threatened by Bill to Amend Legal Code on Gambling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}