Lodge Card Club Raided / Grand Jury does not indict any Lodge employees

But someone said he bought in to an existing club. Surely he could have found a different club that would sell him a piece in a different state and use his fame as a marketing tool.

It just seems like an awfully foolish idea for someone who is purportedly intelligent to want to operate in a known “legal gray area.”

Not only do you put your money on the line, but possibly your freedom, too.

Makes me think he either was given poor legal advice before jumping in or let his ego get in the way.

I don't think intent alone is exculpatory. Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty despite her "genuine" belief.

The vast majority of attorneys are dimwits with mail order degrees who can't pass a college algebra.

10M in chips out? That's crazy. There were like 3 tables of 1/2 going when they were busted. If people are taking millions of dollars of chips home they should know they're really gambling then.

Because it's a bogus lawsuit. They're owed their pay and that's it.

Where are you getting this $5-$10 million number from? Apparently a bunch of other people are now taking this a truth and I don't see any evidence of it. This isn't like an online poker room. The overwhelming majority of players cash out their chips at the end of any session. Why would anyone leave substantial sums of cash in the care of a what's basically a strip mall storefront club anyway?

My un-informed prediction is that players will be paid out eventually, and it won't really be that much money. These funds are basically a bailment and not assets of the corporation that might be eligible for the state to seize. If there's evidence that the Lodge owners were mixing these funds with their personal money, that would be a different story, but I don't think we've seen any claims in this direction.

The employees are out of luck. They likely have no claim against The Lodge or any of its owners absent some very unusual employment contract that no one on here is aware of.

Wtf are you babbling about? What is “equivocating a lawsuit in and of itself” and how does that determine personal liability for corporate owners?

None of us know the exact number.

But generally speaking people playing in big games keep a lot of big chips in boxes rather than cashing out every time. I do this in legal casinos I have a box in. It saves so much time. So I'm sure there are a lot of people out there with a lot of big chips that may be worthless.

Now would I want a ton of chips from some quasi legal room? Hell no.

I think you are assuming that my hypotheticals are my opinion. I don't have an opinion since I have no clue about their business structure or Texas law.

I get it, though, people are dogmatic on the internet for whatever reason.

You're correct, of course.
That was a poor choice of phrasing on my part. I didn't mean to imply that I thought he was first.

Doug seems to have a desire for the spotlight, though. Its possible he thought he would be the face of change in TX (in regards to poker). And maybe he still does...perhaps this is all part of some elaborate 4D chess game. (Though that seems highly unlikely at this point.)

But yeah, it was probably just all about greed.

https://www.poker.org/latest-news/doug-p...

Id say theres a 99% chance doug and brad and andrew got into it because it seemed FUN and because they had been in so many poorly run cardrooms they thought they could do a much better job with operations and promotions (which is TRUE, most card room operators/executives are so bad at their jobs it should be criminal, and often is). because of this increasing profits seemed like a no brainer, have fun, make money, what could go wrong? Im guessing they also viewed it as a B&M toehold in an emerging gambling market that could be worth 100x what they paid to get in if a couple palms could be greased and a couple of dominos fell their way. An LA card room owner was trying to sell his shares for an insane amount based on the pipe dream that sports betting and online gambling was about to be legalized in CA. but only through established B&M licenses and people were buying it!!!!

IANAL but “Piercing the corporate veil” is this thread’s version of the Seinfeld “write off”. Most likely outcome here is Ch 7 bankruptcy and the employees will have to get in line with all other unsecured creditors, including anyone with chips to cash in.

I find it amusing that Doug and Brad are also heavily involved with clubwpt which is another poker legal grey area that could get shut down at any moment

hahaha, perfect reference!

Its all been nothing but legal grey areas since black friday

ACR/Winning, Bovada/Ignition, Global poker, WPT Gold, Coinpoker, app games, etc.

Like it is perfectly legal to play in California for nine days of the month. Creating their own rules to get around the legality of online gambling.

GOOD! and players are printing money the days they do play because the games are unreal (for online poker). that said, anyone who whines when the music stops should have their head examined (INCLUDING ME!). I will have no pity for them (OR MYSELF). Every single player printing online right now should have their possible shut down factored into their profitability analytics and write off exposure if they've signed up under my code. I've made this abundantly clear. I dont push the poker industrial complex party line. poker is gambling, poker is a hustle. buyer beware, keep your head on a swivel. . Im a poker HONEST GUY. It costs me money in the short run but in the long run I can always stand behind 100% of the things I say.

Meanwhile sports betting is legal in nearly every state now. All these "legalities" are simply based on how much revenue the state thinks they can generate by doing it vs what current business model it competes with or may compete with in the future

Not sure why that's amusing to you but you sound like a very simple guy so enjoy

Fwiw the California rooms are in their own legal fight at the moment; not over poker itself, but the banked games they are spreading which seems to make up a good portion of the room's revenue.

correct. because they've been flouting the law for decades like gangsters and covid shutdowns wised the indians up to how much money they were losing to the LA card rooms on baccarat. the indians have deep enough pockets to fight them in court for years. on april 1st if the banking corporations are thrown out its going to be a GOLD RUSH for people with the money to bank the big games at peak hours.

When Doug got involved poker had already been in TX for 7-8 years. We now have close to 100 poker social clubs throughout the State of varying sizes.

Victories by Poker Rooms like TCH have led to brands that shied away from entering TX to coming in droves (WPT, WSOP, RunGood, PokerAtlas) in the past year.

While I didn't agree with everything they did, The Lodge was one of the few clubs trying to do things right in their operations within the framework of the law.

They weren't hosting blackjack, roulette, baccarat, sweeps machines, etc. They were purely poker, weren't taking rake from games, and poured tons of their own money into promotions for members as well, no jackpot drops, etc.

Aside from one specific tournament that got interrupted due to an insane weather event, they honored significant overlays on their tournaments many times over the years.

There are tons of clubs in TX (and poker rooms in regulated states) that play all kinds of games with guarantees, promotional money, etc. And there's tons of rooms in Houston raking as well.

I learned this lesson a long time ago in my early 20s when UIGEA happened and neteller got shut down. I had some money stuck on ultimate bet that I eventually got back many years later but probably 75-80 percent of my net worth was stuck on neteller like an idiot.

I was shitting bricks until we got paid in full maybe 7-8 months later and never made such a stupid mistake again.

I've very lucky to have not lost that money as my life would likely be a lot different today if I didn't get it back.

After that I got burned a couple times by shady sites or processing companies but it was only a couple thousand here or there and a cost of doing business unfortunately. It could have just as easily been neteller as any of those companies that never paid.

Unfortunately, there is a long list of attorneys who will charge $500 an hour, tell you what you want to hear, lose your case, and then shrug their shoulders afterward.

I have to wonder if that's what is happening here.