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3 charged in '08 raid on poker game
Friday, February 06, 2009
BY MATTHEW KEMENY
Of The Patriot-News
This wasn't just a group of guys playing poker in an upstairs room, authorities say.
It was a profitable gambling organization that netted thousands for three midstate men who were charged Thursday with illegal gambling, pool selling and bookmaking after a yearlong investigation by Upper Allen Twp. Police, authorities said.
Roger C. Van-Selow, 39, of th 400 block of River Road, Dauphin, and Joseph Waiwada, 43, of the 400 block of Duke Street, East Pennsboro Twp., are accused of organizing Texas Hold'em poker games in a room above Jeff's Auto Body shop in the 2400 block of South Market Street from March 2007 to January 2008, according to court papers filed Thursday at District Judge Mark W. Martin's office.
The games were held Thursday through Sunday nights and the pair would split a $600 to $800 profit per week, papers stated.
"What distinguishes this from you playing poker with your buddies is ... the house takes a cut," Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said. "This was a for-profit enterprise."
...
In mid-January, police obtained a court order allowing officers to install surveillance cameras inside the second-story room.
After a week of surveillance, police raided a poker game there and seized about $14,000, court documents state. In addition to the cash, police confiscated hundreds of poker chips, six game tables, 14 decks of cards, three television sets and a security camera and monitor, according to the documents.
There were 22 people inside when police broke down the door and three more arrived during the Jan. 24 raid, Freed said.
None of the players will be charged, Freed said. The players, who paid $60 to get into a game, were mostly local men, aged early 20s to early 60s, Freed said.
Some players came from as far away as Philadelphia and Scranton, he said.
He said the operation had links to a similar group in Lancaster County that was held up in 2004 by four robbers who took thousands of dollars and made all the players strip.
MATTHEW KEMENY : 255-8271 or mkemeny@patriot-news.com