Agree. All the local media publishing reports saying the clubs are legal should be sued...the radio stations running ads...the billboard companies...etc.

Class action anyone? I bet Clear Channel will settle for a high enough amount to get everyone their money back.

Exactly my thought even people coming after work are still probably going to put in a two hour session.

Not everyone stays for two hours though...in my own example, there were times that I hit a place long enough for traffic to die down. I rarely stuck around for two hours. As such, I have no interest in spending $40 to trade money with what will probably be the same dozen people (which is what basically happened a few years ago with the old Club 333).

That's actually a very good deal for the player. Prime was $16/hour + daily fee($10). So that's $42 for two hours. Vast majority of poker players stay longer than 2 hours anyway. It's a steal for any real poker player. The club owners will have to get away with paying staff/dealers restaurant min wage, though.

Iv'e heard some of the people who had rented lock boxes at Prime had over 60k in their boxes... Man what a hit... Never leave that much. Always cash out...

lets ask the resident attorney Michelle in this thread how those people u are talking of who had 60k in their safety deposit box can reclaim it. whose holding it now, the police or the club? who would u sue? would the club return it if they could and could they be charged with theft or does the police have it?

again a lot of people had no idea it was illegal, sure u knew, i knew, michelle knew, but for a lot of regular customers taking radio and newspaper ads and word of mouth of friends? how the xxxx would they know anything like this would happen? the only people whod know there was a risk would be the ones smarter to be well experienced in poker and familiar with things like this.

It looks like Lions converted to a $60/day model.

A coworker told me on the news they had reported that one of crimes there charged with was not withholding for large tournament wins? Isn’t the responsibility on the players for tax reporting?

I wonder y ... yesterday rounders did and today Lions hmmm

Hmm. So, I believe they were operating within technical legality. However, if the DA wants you gone, I feel like it will be very difficult to stay afloat.

I'm curious what likelyhood it is that anybody is able to cash in their chips. Also keep in mind they let players leave with chips. So, the following scenarios can occur...

1) They fight the charges, reopen and cashout any outstanding chips
2) They fight the charges, but realize they may not be able to stay open for long, and thus it is more profitable to stay shut down and not cash out players chips (not sure the legality of this one)
3) They get shut down and the money remains seized, the DA uses the seized funds to cash out affected players
4) They get shut down and the money remains seized, the DA keeps the money.

I feel that 4 seems rather unlikely, and as does 2. Thus, I think there's actually a pretty good chance affected players will get $ back, though it may take time.

So, um, how's the action at Lions?

Very good (in the PLO games). They went to a new model today. $60 and you can play all day. Attempt I guess to show they make nothing off the actual poker playing.

LOL of course you were a prosecutor. I was wondering why you were such an obnoxious douche. It all fits now.

Shai! You’re back! Missed you so much. Guess you’ve been too busy crushing all the 1/2 games wherever you ran off to to post here. I could never rise to your level of douchebaggery. You’re the champ!

For those with a decent bankroll and play long sessions this is a good deal. For those trying to jump into a game and play short stack and trying to hit a lick there days are done..

Looks like the new plan for most of these places is to go to a higher door fee and no hourly fee.

Anyone have a list of the clubs still closed?

Likely the only business model left to try. Which could,change everything.

Difference is, when Freerolls did it you still had Prime, Post Oak, and Mint doing the hourly. Now you don’t. Plus the location wasn’t the best.

Speaking of Freerolls. They are back open today.

It looks like all of the clubs are open now except for the two that got raided and Mint.

How many of the remaining Houston area clubs that are currently open are still charging hourly club access fees?

SoHo charges $8 for seat fees and $10 daily membership and seems they are consistently getting cash games off now. Mint is still closed and no info of when they were gonna re-Open was given when I asked employees

I plan being in Austin at the end of the month for some poker - should I be concerned the clubs there could be next? Or does each city have t's own politics?

As a player, you should be far more concerned with the risk of getting robbed.

The DA in Travis County is not in the midst of being blasted for blowing capital murder cases while also being on record as ignoring pot laws and immigration hold requests nor is the police chief in the crosshairs for having had officers who lied to get a warrant that subsequently resulted in two innocents being gunned down in the search warrant execution.

Remember also that there were only two rooms that were made the subject of frivolous prosecution in Harris County. Many others continue to operate.

To the most fundamental issue...yes, each jurisdiction has its own politics. And yes, politics were at play in Harris County for the reasons detailed in this thread as well as the one in NVG.