excerpt:

NORTHPORT | Police in Northport have put a stop to the nightly poker games at One More Lounge, saying that the owners were illegally promoting gambling.

But the owners, Larry and Joyce Watson, said they didn’t believe they were breaking the law.

Northport Police Chief Robert Green said undercover police officers watched poker games at the bar on McFarland Boulevard for two weeks before issuing citations to the Watsons on Wednesday night.

The couple are charged with promoting gambling, a misdemeanor.

‘We will not tolerate it,’ Green said. ‘We will enforce the letter of the law in Northport.’

Other establishments in Northport are engaging in similar activities, he said, and investigators intend to target those businesses next.

Larry Watson said that his bar opened three years ago and has hosted poker tournaments for the past two years. Players paid a $10 entry fee, he said, and were given a bag of poker chips. The last three people in the game split the money from the entry fees.

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Bar owners cited for promoting gambling | TuscaloosaNews.com

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