Four people have been taken into custody on illegal gambling charges, stemming from a police raid at a Drew Street residence on Jan. 16 at 12:30 a.m.

Sascha N. Kauper, 33, of Palm Harbor was charged with two counts of keeping a gambling house. Robert Nicola Gill, 26, of Tampa was charged with two counts of being an employee of a gambling house and Chastity Ann Baur, 30, of Tampa was charged with one count of being an employee of a gambling house.
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Lee Rousso, attorney and Poker Players Alliance state director for Washington State, will announce that he’s running for governor at 2 p.m. PT on Seattle’s 710 KIRO radio station.

Rousso is the attorney who’s fighting Washington State’s law that makes it a felony to play online poker there. Rousso’s legal challenge is meeting stiff resistance by state attorneys, but he told Card Player that if it can’t be changed through legal means, “The Plan B is to get it changed politically.”

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It’s almost 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night and Carlos Escobar’s cell phone won’t stop ringing.

“Yeah, man, I have a game tonight. We have 11 players so far. Why? Do you want to come?” asks Escobar — not his real name — to the person on the other side of the line. “Okay, hurry up; hold on, I have another call. Hello? Yeah, we’ll start around nine; I already have a full table, but come over anyway, man,” he tells the second caller.

At Escobar’s house, they are preparing for a long night of poker. His wife is barbecuing steak and cooking mashed potatoes for the guests who are about to arrive.

But this isn’t just a gathering of friends who like to play cards. Escobar, 32, manages a small gambling house in his garage and it’s an activity that is so lucrative that it has been his full-time job for the last seven months. The visitors come to bet, try to win money, and often go home with less cash in their pockets or in debt.

The phenomenon of underground gambling houses cropping up in private homes and small shopping centers in Houston is in vogue and increasingly attracts more people.

Police say they don’t know how many of these illegal gambling houses exist and aren’t sure how to deal with the growing illegal industry.

Marc Brown, an official at the District Attorney’s misdemeanors division, says it’s not illegal to play poker for money in a house as long as the winner takes all the earnings and there is no entrance fee to get in the game. “It’s illegal to gamble when it is in a public place and (also) when the person who is organizing the game makes money,” says Brown.

On a typical night at Escobar’s house, players have to pay $5 to participate in each hand, and they can buy as many or as few chips as they’d like. If it’s a tournament, where more money is on the table, it costs $25 to enter and each participant must buy a minimum of $100 in chips.

If the police discover an underground game in a house and arrest the participants, the players will receive a class C infraction and could get a fine of $500. The organizer will get a class A infraction and could be sentenced to a year in jail.

“If we can prove that the people who organize (the games) have been laundering money and have acquired property with that money, the charge becomes an offense that could end in two years in jail,” Brown says.

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Two people were arrested and a 13-year-old was referred to Child Protective Services after undercover officers determined a San Mateo house was holding illegal Saturday night poker games.

Cutberto Cardenas, 42, of San Mateo is facing two misdemeanor charges for fraudulently obtaining money under false pretenses and for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Patricia McCoy, 47, of Hillsborough, is facing one misdemeanor charge for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

At approximately 2:25 p.m. Saturday, San Mateo County deputies and agents from the state Department of Justice found 20 adults and one minor in a house on the 1600 block of Lexington Avenue in the unincorporated San Mateo Eichler Highlands neighborhood. Officers issued a search warrant and found three poker tables, playing chips, cards, $1,300 in cash and other paraphernalia associated with gambling, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

The investigation began three months ago after the Sheriff’s Office received numerous complaints from residents of the Eichler Highlands neighborhood about heavy foot traffic and parking problems.

A background investigation into who occupied the house and those who visited led investigators to Meetup.com, a Web site that allows groups to manage public events related to a number of different hobbies or interests. The Web site had a page that touted weekly poker tournaments at the home on Lexington Avenue, according to Lt. Marc Alcantara of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

The undercover investigation determined that the gaming operation was more than just a casual card game and in fact maybe an illegal gambling operation perpetrated by Cardenas to fraudulently obtain money from the unwitting participants who were recruited online, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

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The Poker Players Alliance has caught fire in recent months. Heading into 2008, its membership stands at a shade under 900,000. That means the equivalent of one in every 300 Americans is a PPA member. Not bad for a lobbying group that is still unpacking boxes in the nation’s capital. In case you’ve hid under a rock lately, 2008 is an election year. That means an emphasis on elections and, with caucuses already underway, the PPA has developed a targeted strategy for the New Year. As many were still cleaning up from ringing in 2008, PPA Executive Director John Pappas was already hard at work.

The PPA unveiled a plan to expand and promote itself on the local level in 2008. Back in August, the organization pushed for its members to become August Advocates, which meant contacting Congressmen when they returned to their home districts and serving as a point of contact for local media. Expect to see a push towards a more dominant local presence. Pappas explains, “We’ll be reinvigorating our State Directors program very soon by reaching out to our 875,000 members and seeing who wants to be more active at the state level. We’ll have a more sophisticated and robust plan for them to be active and the PPA will be more visible.”

There are currently 30 state directors spread out over the country working on a local level. However, more is needed, especially for an organization approaching one million members: “We’re not expecting them to work blindly or on their own. The PPA will be giving them strategic guidance on initiatives they can undertake, such as recruitment of new members for 2008. This could involve reaching out to places where poker players gather like local card rooms, casinos, or poker games. We’ll also be using them as spokespeople with local media on behalf of the PPA, whether it’s writing letters to the editor or serving as an interviewee. We’ll also use them to organize meetings in their Congressmen’s district offices. We’d like to have representation in every state.” A PPA staffer will serve as a point of contact for every State Director.

Pappas’ ideal candidate would be someone who is passionate about the game of poker and, at the same time, has a political background and understands the political process. The State Directors won’t just be doing all the hard work while the PPA takes all the credit. Pappas notes, “We’ll be making sure they’re recognized.”

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Purely as an informational service, we are providing PPA members with information on the records of the leading presidential primary candidates. Bear in mind that we can not make an educated judgment solely from candidates’ votes on the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), 1) because there were many other issues involved in its last-minute passage through the Congress, and 2) some of the candidates were not in Congress when it passed.

Frankly, there is very little specific information from most of the candidates on this issue, so we are also encouraging you to contact the campaigns of the candidates who interest you, and ask their position. Please let them know you are an undecided voter and a proud poker player when you contact the campaign, so we can illustrate the grassroots strength behind the great game of poker. It’s time to let the presidential primary candidates know that Poker Is Not a Crime!

Notes:

• Under the Internal Revenue Code, as a non-profit 501c4 organization, we are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. We can provide candidate information.
• PPA Member, TheEngineer, keeps his own Presidential Candidate Scorecard, click here to read the latest.

The Democratic Frontrunners:

Hillary Clinton:

The two-term senator from New York won the New Hampshire Democratic primary. She has recently expressed that she supports the industry’s position: to study Internet gambling to see whether it can be fairly regulated so that individuals can safely participate in it and American businesses can compete in the international market (Las Vegas Sun, 01/18/08). When contacting the campaign, be sure to let them know you are an undecided voter and a proud poker player.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/


Barack Obama:

The senator is from Illinois and winner of the Iowa Democratic caucus. Obama has recently expressed that he worries that the Internet is “a Wild West of illegal activity”, and supports a study of Internet gambling and supports regulation to address the worst abuses (Las Vegas Sun, 01/18/08). He is reputed to be a good player, and doesn’t mind letting it be known that he enjoys playing poker for money. These stories are even on his own website. When contacting the campaign, be sure to let them know you are an undecided voter and a proud poker player.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

The Republican Frontrunners:

Mike Huckabee:

Republican Iowa caucus winner and former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee does have a clear position OPPOSING Internet Poker. Mike Huckabee responded to the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling’s questionnaire (the only candidate to respond, by the way). In it, he promised to veto any legislation repealing UIGEA or otherwise clearly legalizing online gaming.

Here is the question he was asked, complete with its bias and inaccuracies:

1) Last year, Congress voted overwhelming to criminalize most forms of Internet gambling. This year some members of Congress are promoting legislation to legalize Internet gambling. If such legislation passed, would you veto it? Huckabee answered “yes.” That’s about as clear as it gets.

information@explorehuckabee.com

John McCain:

The New Hampshire Republican primary winner does not have a specific position on Internet poker, but does appear to have been influenced by his fellow Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who is a vigorous opponent of our rights. McCain, however, has always been willing to consider both sides of an issue and may simply need to know how strongly PPA members feel about this issue. We encourage you to contact his campaign and ask whether he has a specific position, and of course, to let them know you are an undecided voter and a proud poker player.

http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Ron Paul:

In keeping with his Libertarian philosophy, Congressman Paul is a proud supporter of our cause. Rep. Paul has supported and sponsored pro-poker legislation, and has also made time to visit with PPA grassroots members, poker celebrities, and citizens lobbyists every time we have asked. His credentials on allowing adults the freedom to play poker are unblemished.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/contact/form

Happy New Year! Please read this important announcement. Poker needs you!

2008 will be a critical year for poker. The success and momentum we built
together in 2007 must continue into a more vocal and mobilized grassroots
efforts this year. We cannot move forward without broad support and active
involvement from our members. With that in mind, I am pleased to extend to you
an invitation to become a State Director for the Poker Players Alliance.
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