Feds are investigating the DAs office, not the poker rooms. All charges against the rooms have been dropped.

You need to read the article from the news again. Then you can edit this post.

I get my information straight from the source, not the news. Read the article very carefully and think about how the quotes can be interpreted.

Quote from the press release that you read so carefully

"We are dedicated to transparency and fairness and we have turned over the organized crime and money laundering investigation of these poker clubs to federal investigators," said Ogg

That’s right, the investigation itself is being reviewed by the FBI and the charges against the clubs was dropped, and the club money is being returned.

Bill, congrats on having the charges dismissed

Nice, when is Prime Social reopening?

While im happy i didn't sell my chips for like 25c on the dollar, I'm now regretting not buying other people's chips ffs coulda 3x'd my money

I am much more talk, dark, and handsome than Bill. I will pass along the the congrats though(in case he doesn’t read it here himself).

The Feds don't publicize investigations.
Here's my professional opinion on the matter: DA dropped the charges not only because she knows she's going to lose, but even worse for them, the judge may clarify the law in a way not to their liking.
While it is true that equity won't enjoin a crime from being committed, by the same token if you're seeking equity, you have to do equity yourself. The DA's office has potentially shot themselves in the foot regarding future prosecutions.
I'm guessing the civil public nuisance suit is still alive, and Prime still has a serious parking problem with the neighborhood if and when they reopen (yes, if and when) .

Woke up to some good news this morning. Anybody have the inside scoop on when POPC or Prime will be reopening? Hoping for Houston to have its own poker boom!

very much doubt post oak will open again in the city

prime almost definitely will re-open - will the landlord rent to them - that's an interesting question - since (from what i see) has not sold the property - he certainly would like to get the rent but he has to weigh the possibility of getting involved in a backlash of renting to a business that is "not proven legal" - tough choice on that one

Whoever rents to them will have to consider this and probably would "protect themselves" by getting a price that would be worth the risk

If not - you are probably looking at a period of build out of 1-3 months for they will want to be as impressive as they were before

No issues with Prime's landlord. They will be opening again within 2 months in the same location.

Clive is correct about Post Oak though. Don't see them reopening. Ganymede(Bill) has moved on to new venture in Spring and two of the other owners(Chodrow brothers) were in process of getting out around the time of the bust(were actually in process of negotiating sell out when it happened). Kebert might be the only one that tries to reopen somewhere else.

Some good info here about what happened - https://www.click2houston.com/video/...ys-speak-event

Note the last part about Prime's pending big grand opening!

Non working link...

They had a live video chat with Prime's lawyer and Wayne Dolecfino which was pretty good. Looks like it is down or maybe they don't archive those on the site. Here is an article that summarizes some of the info that was in that chat which they did just post to their site.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/p...owners-dropped

While the State charges have been dismissed and an Order entered to return funds, it does not close the book. Kim has indicated she was referring the matter to the feds. Of those I knew who were in the criminal courts building today (including two in my building who do felony work), nobody was giving the impression that it was a case of the feds looking at the DA's office.

I still hold to my earlier position that the State codes were not violated. Federal could be a different matter but I have not looked at federal statutes to know what could or could not be proven with the facts that exist here...and I am not going to take the time to do so because federal law has basically no bearing on the area of Texas criminal practice in which I AM involved (namely parole and corrections).

That being said...I strongly believe that if Kim had truly believed a violation of State law existed, she would have turned the matter over to Paxton's office with a request for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed, which tends to be the usual course of business where a perceived conflict of interest was going to exist.

Ya'll are probably up to speed on this already but seems it's just being referred to the feds because a potential defense witness used to work for the DA. IE they are just reviewing the investigation to make sure that it was correct for them to drop charges.

https://www.cardschat.com/news/houst...d-to-fbi-83065

Follow up article in today's Houston Chronicle: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...d-14103912.php

This would hint that the feds may be looking into the consultant.

What was great about Prime before the raids was the growing presence of "regular folks" at the tables. I wonder how long it will take for that to recur. My guess is the partnerships with the ESPN radio station, other general publicity, will be key to that: convincing the general public these games are legal(ish) and safe is required for the games to grow beyond full time gamblers.

It's an expanding set of circles: some folks will show up no matter what. I haven't played since the raids, but am likely to return at some point. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of players beyond my ring.

The challenge is that a small club can make a ton of money with just the full time gamblers, so there isn't as much economic pressure to address the other consumer bases.

Lions was jam packed yesterday. Busiest I have seen it. WSOP ending might have had a small effect but I saw lots of new faces and some I hadn't seen since the raid. I think some that stayed away due to the legality question came back after the news that the charges were dropped. Hopefully Round 2 of the Houston Poker boom is about to begin.

I don't understand this at all. The casinos here rake smaller games and take time on larger ones. No one would propose that they only earn revenue from the raked games, or that someone could open a casino with only timed games and escape regulation from the gambling commission.

Things apparently got VERY interesting at the Commissioner's Court meeting today where Kim was seeking additional funding for financial crimes investigators...also of note is that the 'consultant" in the equation and that was the source of the 'conflict of interest' cited in the State's Motion to Dismiss was apparently being paid about $1100 per month and was linked to Soros. CC wanted to know what prompted the hiring of a 'consultant' (who is not an attorney) to drum up additional financial crimes...along with questions about why new staff are needed if there are so few financial crimes cases coming in that a non-attorney was being paid to drum up cases from the business community.

I was not present at the meeting and am getting the information from someone who was there, so that may be an oversimplification of the raking over the coals that occurred today...

They have different models to try and skirt the Texas "no gambling" laws (which are a joke by the way since the State sells lottery tickets which are far worse for lower income people than poker but that is another story).

One place, Lions, now just charges a "door fee" to come in and you can play as little or as long as you want. Or you don't even have to play if you just want to come in. The fee is $70. I think this is the model the state would have the hardest time shutting down.

The others charge an entry fee (typically $10) and then a seat fee every hour(ranges from $5 to $16 depending on the place). Their argument is that they aren't taking any money from the pot. Just charging for a "seat" similar to when a pool hall charges a fee to rent the pool table or you play darts at a bar and rent time for the darts/dart board or bowling alley and rent the lane.

That area is a little grayer but for now places are going strong in Austin and San Antonio and it appears back in business in Houston as well.

You show a California location. Your card rooms are expressly permitted through State law. The games here are in facilities operating in a gray area of Texas law. Texas has NO Commission to oversee games or rooms precisely because there is no law that expressly authorizes the operation. A business model was created to work within the framework of the affirmative defenses existing in the Texas Penal Code.

I'm with you. This quote makes no sense "Lewis said the clubs earned no revenue from the poker games."

Perhaps it's just semantics and it should have stated that they clubs earned no revenue from the poker pots.