how do private games not get in legal trouble

Your place sounds awesome and marginally higher rake for way worse players in a much more fun environment is well worth it.

Grats on sobriety - I have 33 years. Fuck tons more fun life than I used to have. Gl with the business. Not without its risks, but you have your eyes open. I'd be totally down to come if you have $200 NL (joke...)

I have never been audited myself but a friend was audited around 10 years ago because he got into blackjack for a couple years and was withdrawing and depositing 20-100k a day from his business account and it raised flags with the bank and IRS. He ended up having to show receipts for all his big business purchases and luckily he played at a casino where he used his rewards account and they tracked his betting. If the casino didn't keep records of his gambling I don't know if it would have worked out for him or not.

i've played a lot in private games, also semi-private casino games. i prefer the semi-private games now but when i was younger i loved the private games for the seedier element that comes with it.
honestly yeah the private games are basically all illegal, with the rare exception of "networking games", i've played in several of these they're great. mostly all businessmen, the one i played in the most frequently was run by the associate of a venture capital fund. all business people, startup founders, investors. naturally everyone is pretty bad at the game also has money to burn.
the thing is though the amount of heat you can catch for running a poker game is really low, compared to basically any other illegal activity where you can make comparable money. molly bloom only got 1 year probation and a $325,000 fine for a game that was raking millions. try making millions off any other type of crime and getting 1 year probation.
in my experience there's two types of people that run private games, young guys who do a risk/reward calculation and decide it's worth it, and career criminals who do the same calculation and decide it's way more worth it than whatever other **** they were doing.
a lot of private games have some organized crime component to it. not serious organized crime but like guys that used to have credit card skimmers or did insurance fraud or whatever and they pivoted to running poker games. maybe they know 1 or 2 "heavy" type guys that they can use for intimidating people into paying up markers, or have the money to throw at guys who are club bouncers or private security to be their security 1 or 2 nights a week. or they pay a kickup of the rake to a bigger gang for protection.
i've met a lot of cops in private games. not undercover cops but guys where everyone knows they're a cop and they're just in the game to play. cops are usually huge fish. a lot of games probably pay off cops too, it's nbd to them usually it's only misdemeanor level **** happening where nobody would even go to jail if they had a good lawyer and the ppl running these games have money to afford a good lawyer.

most of the games i've played in it's a mix of cash and credit. usually the good winning players buy in with cash and the bad losing players buy in on marker. usually the bad players that get extended credit are businessmen, people with good jobs, and they're like permanently on marker and settle up maybe 60% of it every month at best. it's worth it to the host to keep these people in the game so they always get extended more credit. eventually they crash out and have to sell cars or whatever to settle the marker then they get banned. sometimes the winning players also accept "positive market" where you have a running positive credit in the game and the host pays you out piecemeal over time. i never did this, i always bought in cash and cashed out cash. i know players that have gotten ****ed for big sums accepting positive marker and then the host never paid them out.

i've played in some games for going on 10 years, they basically never get shut down unless they're also including drugs/prostitutes in the game, which some games do do... those are usually running on a ticking clock before they get shut down or the host gets out of the game. also during COVID some games got shut down temporarily, but a lot of those are back now.

What does this mean? You don't rake? Do players pay time, a membership fee, or what?

it just means i wouldn't prefer to confirm a rake in writing on a public forum 😀

(but will answer any questions via PM)

No problem, I was just confused, partially because I thought you said earlier that you charged a little more than the regular casinos.

Your place does seem very nice though. I would check it our myself the next time I'm in town, but I'm mostly a limit poker guy.

Do you have an attorney?

Seems way too risky. Inevitably, patrons will have financial or legal problems, which will circle back to you, either at the state or federal level. Or someone will have a hard on for you. Or something.

Blind trust for your kids?

HYPOTHETICALLY...

I think these problems are significantly less of a problem at low limits (2/3 blinds). Things don't "circle back around" when we're talking about $2k.

The best measure of liability is looking outside of my own room. If you were to combine the data on headcounts, table hours and financial losses of all of the players in all of the home games in LA, how many of them were busted or faced issues because of the problems you've detailed? (especially at the low/micro stakes)...

It's really hard to think of any (outside of very extreme examples).

Also, to reiterate, it would be a $500 fine (hypothetically). I dont have kids or a bank account that means anything to me fwiw, ha. I also dont own a house or have any assets under my name whatsoever. (I have a $20 Timex watch on my wrist and drive a 15 year old car)

Genuine question. Why do players go to your game when they can go to one of the many casinos located around the city?

Lmao…….what a complete bonehead showing pics of your so called private game……..maybe the absolute dumbest thing i have seen in awhile……..obviously looking for attention for who knows why……..unreal the crap people spew! If you had half a brain……..keep that to yourself for sure! Just dying laughing!

I would say its dog rolls with biscuits. no wages just a pat on the head and a feed at the end of shift.