Doesn’t matter how you spin it. The law does not say you can’t rake poker. That would be easy to get around and you “BS” might even work. But that isn’t the law.

The TX law says (paraphrased) the house cannot economically benefit. This makes your tournament example clearly violating imo. When the house says they are charging $40 time (which itself would likely not hold up under review) simple reading would be the house benefits by $40 for person entered to play poker in the tournament. How is the house not benefitting economically from the poker tournament. The $ are directly tied to poker play.

Cash games are less clear since they could try to claim they simply rent you a chair and a poker game just breaks out. A bridge game or euchre or go fish game could also break out with no gambling. Would that pass the smell test upon review? Maybe or maybe not. But there at least is a claim that the $ do not depend on there being a poker game.

The other cash game issue is they only charge it when you do have a seat. When no live seats are available but only two people waiting or there are no dealers available or some other reason you can’t play poker, do they collect the time $? If not, have they now implicitly tied the $ to playing poker?

Again, this might be argued either way. But when the fee is specifically and directly tied to a tournament happening, how is it not economic benefit from the tournament? How is the tournament not gambling? How is the house not economically benefitting from gambling?

You claim the law is so poorly written. I completely disagree. If it was such a terrible law, it would not be so difficult to circumvent. Imo, you call it terrible because you want poker to be legal. Maybe the intent of the law is terrible or not connected to current populace desires but the actual law is not terrible. What is terrible is the process has taken so long to define what is and isn’t legal under the law.

During the live stream this week, TCH mentioned that their new location in Las Colinas will be opening soon. They stated it would open with like half the tables of TCH Dallas but would be expandable to like double the # of tables, so I'd guess like 50 tables. I suppose once that location opens, it really won't matter much whether the city of Dallas is successful in shutting this location down or not other than all the Euro pros needing to move to a new hotel.

I do agree with euro pros over my fellow native Texans in regards to male handbags; we need to change the world by teaching more men to wear styles without pockets. But other than that I say no; Texas should remain wild and free and devoid of Euro pros.

Has anyone been here?

I have. There's a dedicated thread for Dallas/Fort Worth rooms in venues:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...poker-1811750/

The fact that 60 rooms around the state are running absolutely negates your opinion the law isn't terribly written.


You don't end up with 60 public poker rooms with 1500 employees around the state with a law that is written well. Just doesn't happen.

You also wouldn't have a judge who ruled in favor of shutting TCH down......allowing them to continue to remain open pending appeal unless the judge agrees there is a fairly reasonable chance TCH will prevail upon appeal.


And I'm not sure how you can even connect the dots in the logic the law is "difficult to circumvent" as all these 60 rooms did is just not rake a pot. LOLOL. That's not "difficult"......it was quite easy.

And these clubs charge either a daily, monthly, or yearly membership fee.

That covers your question of what about people not sitting at a table. They are still paying for time for being there in the form of the membership fee. They incur and additional fee when they are utilizing the table, chairs, and employee (dealer) for their game of choice.

The tournament fee is also a flat fee for time on paper. Which negates your rake argument for the tournament fee. The tournament fee, on paper, is a flat fee for time that covers the player for the entire length of time the tournament runs. Again.....on paper.


Yes, obviously we all know this is a bullshit workaround. Everyone knows it.....you, me, the poker room owners, the judge, the city.....everyone. But that's not how laws and the courts work.


And, the reason this bullshit workaround has been working and continues to work around the state is................because the law isn't written well and needs to be amended or a new law passed.

On January 25th, Dallas City Council voted unanimously to have the city's attorney office draw up a land-use category for these card rooms. The goal would be to allow card houses to operate but to keep them away from neighborhoods.

The TCH Dallas location is ideal given it's remoteness from neighborhoods and the rest of the city.

Last year TCH Dallas provided over a million dollars of tax revenue to the city of Dallas, so yeah I would say a fair number of people have been there.

From what I can tell, almost all the tournaments at TCH Dallas are listed as “reentry” tournaments. Do they charge the time fee for reentries? If so, how does that cover the player for the entire time the tournament runs?

Tournaments are run and “raked” just like any other casino would do it, buy in includes house and admin fees. No time charges while seated for a tournament

Right, it seems like that’s what they are doing. But how can this can this be legal if rake is illegal? How can they plausibly argue it’s a time charge for access?