Up Close: How Legal Is Your
Poker Party?December 21, 2004
The Kenny Rogers song says "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em".
It's wisdom that might hit home with poker players who are gambling here in Houston for real money.
But isn't that illegal?
It's poker night, but this isn't Las Vegas. It's not even Lake Charles.
This is the Seabrook Beach Club on Clear Lake.
It's real poker for real money, where first place will get you at least $2,500.
Poker, especially a version called Texas Hold 'em, is suddenly hot.
Why?
Virtually any night you can watch it on ESPN's coverage of The World Series of Poker.
ESPN has now started not only broadcasting million-dollar tournaments, it's about to debut a drama about high-stakes gambling.
Poker is suddenly out of the backrooms and into the mainstream. On any given night, dozens of bars around Houston are running tournaments with thousands of dollars at stake. But is it legal?
"If you break the law, you break the law," says Robert Burby of the Texas City Police Department. "It's just the way things are done here in Texas City."
A few weeks ago, police in Texas City raided a nightclub, ticketing some 80 players and charging the owner with violating the state's gambling laws.
He told, he'd checked with local officials and believed his poker tournament was a legal way to drum up business. But according to prosecutors, Texas law says gambling is only legit in private places and not in nightclubs or bars.
The Harris County D.A.'s office flatly says the only place you can play poker for money legally in Texas is in the privacy of your own home.
That is an interpretation not shared at the Seabrook Beach Club.
"We come as club members," Mark Liszewski, club member. "We come to play a game."
The poker room is separate from the rest of the bar and players have to register as members making it a private place according to the management. In a strip mall in nearby Webster, we found more games in progress.
Rick Garren retired from professional wrestling to open what he calls Big Slick's Social Club devoted solely to poker. Garren says by keeping it members only and making money only from entry fees, food and soft drinks he's legal.
Garren says playing poker like this is a far cry from clearly illegal games played in smoky backrooms where the house takes a cut of the pot.
"If you play in an underground game, you don't know if you're gonna get paid, you don't know if you're gonna get robbed, you don't know if the place is going to get busted, I mean there are just so many things that are dangerous," says Garren.
For now, these games go on, but experts say it might take a change of Texas law to make it clear whether they're truly legal or not.
State alcohol officials in Houston say they routinely investigate bars for having illegal video and slot machines. But they say Texas Hold 'em is a new concept in gambling and that for now, they likely won't take action unless the District Attorney decides it's an offense.
