Quote:
Originally Posted by michelle227
Contrary to JRB's post, I would not agree that the consensus is that the non-rake games are in violation of applicable State law. Quite the contrary, there was one poster who repeatedly tried to use arguments from a very anti-gambling site that ALSO still relies on appellate Opinions that date to when gambling in Texas was a felony AND where a rake WAS being taken off the table, even though it was ostensibly only to pay expenses of operation.
There are games being run that are 'membership based' that are subject to having problems if prosecution was attempted because of allowing chips off the table to pay tips and time or for food/drink. However, the membership-based operations such as POPC are far more likely to prevail in any manner IF prosecution were attempted. However, as I have previously opined here, I just don't see poker prosecution being high on their to-do list...
So, until such time as prosecution is had AND prevails, my opinion remains that "yes, there are rooms that are operating in a manner consistent with the affirmative defenses proffered in Sections 47.02, 47.03 and 47.04 of the Texas Penal Code."
1. There is no affirmative defense in 47.03.
2. The membership/time rake model everyone is using/copycatting is fundamentally flawed. Find me the part of the affirmative defenses in 47.02 or 47.04 that talks about a pot rake being bad and a time rake being okay...I'll wait.
3. Clubs have been urged to shut down in Dallas...and they complied. This is possibly starting to happen now in Houston. Sure owners can fight, but who wants to go to clubs battling the authorities? Go ask strip club owners how that went for them.
4. The one thing I do agree with you on is the question of whether or not this a priority for law enforcement. Every district attorney gets to decide whether or not he or she wants to spend time on this. In Austin and San Antonio, the DA's don't seem to care. In Dallas they seem to care. In Houston...we don't know yet, but it's not looking good.
I get that everyone WANTS there to be more legal poker in Texas. I do too. I so miss playing online poker in my underwear.
But the REALITY is we have a bunch of clowns doing no legal research with no connections and no PR skill trying to backdoor commercialized gambling into a heavily red state that's historically had none of it. Only someone with some juice like Tilman Fertitta could possibly get this done, and he's got no incentive to do so.
Btw, someone please stop Daniel Kebort with Post Oak Poker Club from going in front of Houston City Council. He's just making it worse.
Last edited by HTwnPokerGuy; 01-05-2018 at 01:56 PM.