Late Wednesday night, for the first time in several years, HPD’s Vice Division raided a large gambling operation.

After an undercover investigation that took more than a month, vice detectives and HPD SWAT surrounded a building in southwest Houston. HPD said SWAT was needed because the building was secure and guarded by a private security firm.

Once inside, investigators found dozens of people allegedly playing the popular poker game Texas Hold’em. This is a game that is legal in Texas, unless the house is taking a cut.

HPD told 11 News at the scene that the people running this gambling operation was taking a cut to the tune of at least $10,000 a night.

The gambling room had 14 poker tables, some of them with cards and poker chips.

Officers spent more than an hour counting and seizing cash.

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A bill that would allow gamblers to transfer money from their bank accounts directly to online gambling sites is picking up some congressional momentum.

The legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in April, also provides for the federal regulation and licensing of Internet gambling. U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a co-sponsor of the bill, has introduced a companion bill that would tax reported gambling earnings and produce what he estimates is between $6 billion and $25 billion in federal revenue over the first five years.

Under Frank’s bill, states and Indian tribes would have the option to prohibit Internet gambling within their borders. And, sports leagues, both professional and collegiate, could prohibit wagers on their games. The bill also requires safeguards to counteract underage gambling and gambling addiction.

Thirty-six representatives have pledged their support as co-sponsors so far, including U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who represents the Cape and Islands.

There are three other bills under review connected to online betting. Frank’s bill, which has the most co-sponsors, is still in the Financial Services Committee, which he chairs and which oversees the banking industry.

It has major support from the gambling industry, as well as payment companies such as Visa USA. The bill would actually repeal a 2006 federal ban on the knowing transfer of funds between American banking institutions and businesses that conduct gambling. In the 38 states, including Massachusetts, where Internet gambling is legal, gamblers can use their credit cards but not their debit cards.

Banks have been forced to play “the morality police,” said Steve Kenneally, vice president of payments and technology policy for America’s Community Bankers, a national trade association for banks. Rules from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury were expected in July, said Kenneally, but banks have not yet received them.

While not openly in support of the bill, Kenneally said something must be done to ease the burden on the banks.

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The United States estimates
that its Internet gambling restrictions have only cost Antigua and
Barbuda $500,000 in annual lost revenue – a figure the tiny Caribbean
nation’s chief counsel flatly rejected Friday.
Antigua, the smallest
country to ever win a World Trade Organization case, is seeking the
right to impose $3.4 billion in commercial sanctions against the U.S.
for its failure to comply with a ruling on its online betting ban.

Washington stopped U.S. banks and credit card companies last year from
processing payments to online gambling businesses outside the country.
The decision closed off the most lucrative region in a market worth
$15.5 billion. About half of the world’s online gamblers are based in
the United States.

In March, the WTO upheld the U.S. right to prevent offshore betting as
a means of protecting public order and public morals. But it said it
was illegal to target online gambling, without equally applying the
rules to American operators offering remote betting on horse and dog
racing.

After losing the WTO case, Washington declared its intention to
explicitly remove Internet gambling from its obligations under the
WTO’s treaty on trade in services. Australia, Canada, Costa Rica,
India, Macau, Japan and the 27-nation European Union have all joined
Antigua in filing compensation claims as a result, under a procedure
that is separate from the U.S.-Antigua sanctions arbitration.

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The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) on Monday announced the release of a joint proposed rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (the Act). The Act prohibits gambling businesses from accepting payments in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, including payments made through credit cards, electronic funds transfers, and checks.

The proposed rule would require U.S. financial firms that participate in designated payment systems to have policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent payments being made to gambling businesses in connection with unlawful Internet gambling. The proposed rule would provide examples of such policies and procedures. For purposes of the proposed rule, unlawful Internet gambling generally would cover the making of a bet or wager that involves use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any applicable federal or state law in the jurisdiction where the bet or wager is made.

The Board and Treasury are required by the Act to develop jointly the proposed rule in consultation with the Department of Justice. Comments on the proposed rule are requested by December 12, 2007. The agencies request comment on all aspects of the proposed rule. The Federal Register notice is attached.

Click here to go to the press release.
Click here to read the proposed UIGEA regulations.
Click here to learn how to send your comments about the UIGEA

Internet gambling regulations proposed by U.S. officials on Monday
stopped short of requiring U.S. banks to block checks their customers
make to online casinos while forcing banks to halt debit and credit
payments.

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve issued a plan
requiring bank policies and procedures that are “reasonably designed to
prevent payments being made to gambling businesses in connection with
unlawful Internet gambling,” they said in a statement.

The new U.S. regulations would make the banks responsible for
blocking credit and debit card payments for online gambling. It also
bars bank customers such as online casinos from receiving Internet
gambling proceeds.

“I think that that’s doable,” an industry source said of the proposal.

But industry officials said it seemed that regulators had addressed
their biggest concern about the new law. The agencies concluded it was
“not reasonably practical” for the banks to identify and block
customers from sending checks and making some other types of transfers.

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State police are accusing a veteran Westmoreland County lawyer and a business partner of participating in unlawful gambling by organizing Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments at fire halls in Hempfield and Seward.

Defense attorney Lawrence J. Burns, 63, of 16 Romar Ave., Derry Township, and James L. Hricko, 41, of 1400 Swede Hill Road, Hempfield, both were charged Thursday with three first-degree misdemeanor counts of violating the state’s gambling devices statute.

Since early August, state police have executed three search warrants in connection with the case, seizing almost $43,000 in alleged gambling funds, Trooper Rebecca Fabich and Cpl. Robert Erdely said Friday in a news release.

Fabich went undercover on May 16 to play in an advertised poker game and a cash game at the Adamsburg and Community Volunteer Fire Department in Hempfield, police said in an affidavit of probable cause filed with the criminal complaints.

The Hempfield tournament was advertised through a sign outside the fire hall and a Web site, www.riverloc.com, registered to Burns, the affidavit states.

Less than three months later, police raided a tournament at the Seward Volunteer Fire Hall, according to documents Burns’ attorney filed last month seeking the return of seized money and property. The charges filed this week do not describe the Aug. 3 game in Seward.

Law enforcement authorities contend poker tournaments that are advertised, and held for profit and not for the benefit of a licensed charitable organization, are illegal.

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Two Texas Hold ‘em poker tournaments in the Triangle this month each
attracted dozens of players hoping to win a big prize. Both events had
at least one world-class poker player on hand.
And both were in
violation of North Carolina’s gambling laws, according to the head of
the state’s Alcohol Law Enforcement agency, which enforces them.

But
only one of the tournaments, on a back road outside Benson, ended early
when officers stormed through the front door and arrested everyone. The
other, at a restaurant in Raleigh’s Glenwood South district, went to
the final round, with the winner headed to a resort at Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico.

According to North Carolina law, any person who operates
a game of chance or who bets on a game of chance involving cash,
property or anything of value is guilty of a misdemeanor. But society’s
embrace of poker — on TV and for recreation and charity fundraisers –
coupled with the inconsistent enforcement of state gambling laws, makes
it difficult to know what’s good, clean fun and what’s going to bring
down the law.

“You have got to be so careful,” said Dean Ogan of
Rocky Top Hospitalities, which hosted the Texas Hold ‘em tournament at
its Hi5 restaurant on Glenwood Avenue last week. “There are so many
laws and stipulations.”

Ogan said his company checked with the
ALE to make sure the Texas Hold ‘em tournament did not break any laws.
Over 300 people registered, hoping to win a grand prize of tickets for
two to Cabo San Lucas. The second-place winner was awarded a
high-definition television; third place got $100.

The Hi5 poker
tournament was sponsored by high-profile companies, Time Warner Cable,
Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and radio station G105. The official
dealer for the night’s eight finalists was Greg “Fossil Man” Raymer,
who took home $5 million in 2004 when he won the World Series of Poker
grand prize.

ALE Director Mike Robertson said his agency was not
aware of the tournament at the Hi5. He said if there was an exchange of
cash or other prizes such as the television and the vacation to Cabo
San Lucas, then the tournament was illegal.

“That TV in that tournament came from somewhere. Somebody had to pay for it,” Robertson said the following day.

But in the eyes of some prosecutors, there is a difference.

Wake
County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said that although charity
tournaments or events such as the one held at Hi5 may be technically
against the law, his office tries to use “ordinary common sense” when
the proceeds are clearly for charitable purposes or where the purpose
is to fill a restaurant or bar with patrons.

“I don’t think
that’s what the legislature intended us to focus on,” said Willoughby,
who said those events contrast to gambling houses where people pay an
entry fee to play and the proprietor takes a cut of the pot and profits
from food and drinks….

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TheEngineer’s Presidential Candidate Scorecard has moved to his PPA blog.

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The idea to permit social card games in the city died abruptly Monday afternoon, when the North Bend City Council said doing so could be more trouble than it’s worth.

“I think it’s a hassle we don’t need. There are plenty of places to go,” said Councilor Janet Rubin at the North Bend City Council work session, after Mayor Rick Wetherell said the city doesn’t need to spend time collecting licensing fees and overseeing card tables when The Mill-Casino Hotel is in town.

North Bend does not allow card rooms in the city, but Coos Bay does permit them and has done so since 1987.
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In Coos Bay, social card games are defined as games between players in private homes, private businesses and private clubs of public accommodation, where no house player, house bank or house odds exist and there is no house income from the operation of the game.

Councilors Barry Hayes and Larry Garboden agreed with Wetherell and Rubin’s sentiments, while Bill Richardson questioned whether a social card game could be well regulated by the city.

Only Councilor Frank Amatisto, who first suggested the idea at the council’s last work session, Sept. 10, fought for the ordinance. At the time, he said he would like to allow local businesses to operate Texas Hold’em card games in the city.

“I think you are putting the people who do have businesses in the area at a disadvantage. There are places in town where we could have it,” Amatisto said, Monday. However, when asked which businesses, he said he didn’t know.  “Texas Hold’em is getting to be such a popular game that it is a disadvantage to businesses in North Bend. If they wanted to have it, they don’t have the opportunity to do it.”

In Coos Bay, applicants must go through background checks, pay a nonrefundable $65 investigation fee and pay $25 for work permits for each employee involved in or supervising card room activities. People who have been convicted of a felony in the past 10 years or of five misdemeanors within five years of the date of application, those who have been convicted of any crime involving gambling within the last five years; or those who have had a license revoked or suspended three times by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, the last of which occurred in the last five years; are not allowed to operate a card table.

Several businesses in Coos Bay, including the Eagles Lodge, The Timber Inn, Mak’s Old City Hall and The Silver Dollar, run card games.

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