1. HOUSTON — Nine people were charged Wednesday with money laundering as police and prosecutors raided two poker clubs in west Houston. The Houston Police Department and Harris County District.
2. Post Oak Poker and Prime Social were raided by the Houston Police Department and the DA’s office following a two-year investigation. Ogg said that millions of dollars illegally flowed through both.
3. Information and Reviews about Prime Social Poker Room in Houston, including Poker Tournaments, Games, Special Events and Promotions. Houston, TX 77063 (Directions.
4. On May 1, 2019, law enforcement officers raided the Post Oak Poker Club and Prime Social Poker Room after two years of investigating possible illegal poker games. The two clubs attempted to skirt the law by not directly charging patrons a fee to play poker.

After charges of money laundering weredropped against their owners, the Prime Social Poker Club in Houston, TX, willreopen within the next few weeks. Additionally, with the dropping of allcharges regarding the raids earlier this year, owners of the Post Oak PokerClub also saw charges dropped against them and have said they will reopen. But thatnews isn’t quite as good as it sounds as local authorities have passed alongthe case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for further work.

Big Mistake by Local Legal Experts

What was the reason that Houston District Attorney Kim Ogg dropped the charges and released the men? Apparently, owners of the Prime Social Poker Club had been in touch with Ogg’s Harris County District Attorney’s office regarding the legality of the club and its operations. They were supposedly given the OK from a person in the DA’s office that everything was in order and, as such, the owners of the Prime Social Poker Club went ahead with their opening.

Prime Social is a safe and comfortable place to play your favorite games such as tournament poker, live poker, backgammon, chess, cribbage, dominos, and pool. It's a great place for parties and celebrations. It's simply the best place to be in Houston.

Attorney Joe Magliolo, representing thePrime Social Poker Club, presented this evidence to Ogg and, after his reviewof the information, all charges were dropped against those operating the PrimeSocial Poker Club and the Post Oak Poker Club. There was a sizeable amount ofmoney seized in the raids on the two clubs (more than $200,000) and that willbe returned to the owners.

This doesn’t end the investigation intothe two clubs, however. Ogg forwarded the case to the FBI for investigationbecause his office was hamstrung by the conflict of interest. There is no wordfrom federal authorities about their investigations, except that they were complimentedby investigators about their processes for handling money and their anti-moneylaundering efforts.

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Quick Shutdown of Case After Initial Raids

The case dates back to May of this yearwhen, in a stunning sweep, Houston police raided both the Prime Social Poker Cluband the Post Oak Poker Club. Players who were in the club at the time of theraid were allowed to leave without charges. After the raids were complete, thefollowing nine people were charged with felony money laundering:

Post Oak Poker Club

Daniel Kebort
William Heuer III
Alan Chodrow
Sergio Cabrera
Kevin Chodrow

Prime Social Poker Room

Dean Maddox
Mary Switzer
Brent Pollack
Steven Farshid

At the time of the raid and arrests, Oggtook a strong stance against the poker rooms. “Poker rooms are illegal in theState of Texas,” he bluntly stated in the press release following the policeactions. The Chief of Police for Houston, Art Acevedo, echoed Ogg’s statements,saying, “We can’t allow illegal gambling to go on.” This was before, naturally,that it was learned that the DA’s office had been consulted and given the OK tothe poker clubs to operate.

Are the Poker Clubs Legal?

By a look at the laws of the State ofTexas, it appears that the poker clubs are operating within the legalguidelines of the state.

Texas law states that, while it is notillegal to play poker in the state, if there is money on the felt the operatorof the game cannot take a rake or a fee from the actual play. The poker clubshave been able to get around this by not taking anything from the games but charginga “membership fee” for players to come in the door. Additionally, there isnothing taken from the pots that are played, but the businesses make additionalmoney by selling food on the property (alcohol is banned in the clubs).

The clubs are also popular because of the distance that players would have to go to take part in a game. If it weren’t for the games in the major cities like Houston, San Antonio, Austin and others, poker players would either have to go to Oklahoma or Louisiana to play. Instead of this, many would take part in local, illegal “underground” games – which used to be the predominant way that poker players played in Texas – where the dangers of robbery and fewer player protections emerge.

Whether the dropping of charges is the end of the case in Houston is unknown. Federal action might await the poker clubs, but the local prosecution has been shut down. It is a situation that has to be watched carefully by the poker community.

The Prime Social poker room in Houston has reopened even as Texas confirm 1,100 total deaths from COVID-19 and are getting hit with around a thousand new active cases daily.

Given the US’s shoddy testing systems these numbers are the tip of the iceberg, and it will only get worse as businesses like this flout social distancing guidelines in order to turn a profit in the hospitality and leisure sector.

The club has already been accused of money-laundering in a recent scandal. Although, the charges were dropped when the waters were muddied by various conflicts of interest.

The club are instituting a temperature check on entry, six-max seating arrangements, and enforcing mask wearing for all players.

This is security theatre by the cynical for the gullible.

Temperature checks do not help, as symptomless carriers can spread COVID-19, six max still does not respect the two metre rule, and masks are only partially effective at preventing spread – they will help in a short interaction at the supermarket, but won’t do much for sitting for hours across a small table from someone who will be touching your cards and chips for hours.

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The club’s guidelines also reassure punters the club will be closed from 5 AM to 10 AM “for sanitation”. While the sacrifice of those key hours of high volume breakfast gambling is commendable, this only makes one wonder if that means they will be doing no cleanup during opening hours when it might make a difference to the spread of the virus.

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Poker rooms should be the last places opening up after this pandemic. Prime Social has taken it upon themselves to be the first.