Lodge Card Club Raided / Grand Jury does not indict any Lodge employees
Came looking for some info on this, but I guess I will kick the thread off. Anyone there at the time or know more detail
Makes sense since current TCH Austin is actually in Round Rock n
I remember the first weeks it opened. I believe around 2016. It was a different feeling to enter a card club in Texas. Its on the edge of city limits. Very basic room with a few tables. Brand new community of players.
The Post Oak case was quite different. For one thing it was all local LE. No state and no Feds. Second,only my opinion, but it was a setup. Houston knew the case would be tossed and thought the could use it as a back door precedent for legality.
Regardless it got the possible desired intent, to get it shut down, it was busy in a high traffic area and making plenty money. They also essentially birthed the success for all the rooms in Houston since then.
I think thats the only similarities with this Lodge case, it could be all just smoke to get one of the front runners in the industry to fold.
The Post Oak case was quite different. For one thing it was all local LE. No state and no Feds. Second,only my opinion, but it was a setup. Houston knew the case would be tossed and thought the could use it as a back door precedent for legality.
Thought post oaks was real that neighborhood really didn't like it but the prime one was a setup or am I getting confused.
I remember post oaks was so busy the road would back up with cars and you'd give your keys to valet and by the time you finished playing the car would still be in line
Just a couple of pennies...
Texas politics and religious morality is not as cut and dry as people outside the state may think.
I always thought it was weird that they ended up where they did. Everyone i knew in the area, knows you dont drive in that county with as much as a dim tail light without being prepared for scrutiny and harassment.
Liberals in Austin will protect a salamander one year and a decade later former mayors and council members will be developing condos where they previously restricted construction.
Then they will restrict building permits to stop mcmansions from being built to only fold to tech money 10 years later that want to build 3 air bnb rentals on a single lot.
A liberal in Austin will be cool with chickens in everyone's backyard while liberals in Odessa will be worried about cock fighting.
The morality of conservatives? I doubt i have to even say anything about that.
This is 100% about money. Someone has donated huge chunks of money to someone else to make this happen. It was always a risk for these clubs.
I was influential in the start of one club that had moderate success over the years. I would feel some level of guilt if the original owner had not sold the club.
I was hopeful, but certainly naive. Texas poker is dead. Its time for the owners of these clubs to protect themselves and get out. Employees dang sure better get their backup plans in place.
Serious players need to adjust. My guess is that in 1 year Winstar 2/5 games will be back in business.
Im just gonna accept the likelihood of going back underground and expecting $15 rake to be the norm.
After seeing the actual search warrant particulars for probable cause I'm 99% convinced this is just a punitive fishing expedition going after the biggest fish to scare the other fish away. It's simply a backdoor to kill poker in Texas.
Search warrant says the money was in cash:
Investigators noted that, during the first two months of 2025, approximately $1.35 million was deposited from The Lodge through the Loomis cash vault, located inside the club, into a bank account held by Tempus Holdings, Inc., a business associated with The Lodge Card Club.
The investigators want to use a big number to insinuate something shady is going on but Poker clubs have lots of cash is all this demonstrates. If they have high stakes games it can be easy for a few dozen players to buy and hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of large denomination chips.
In regard to the bolded , TABC didn’t “get a tip and immediately shut them down.” There’s a whole middle section missing from that narrative.Here’s the more likely sequence, assuming everything was done by the book:- Someone submitted a tip/complaint - the same way anyone can report a bar for serving minors, mishandling alcohol, or violating licens
Don’t disagree with this at all but let’s note this isn’t like probable cause is done in a bail hearing where defendant gets to contest strength of it. In this case investigators made some claims, and judge ruled that it sounded vaguely concerning enough to investigate. From what was reported the claims were that the room deposited a lot of cash and forgot to card a single player.
- Law enforcement executed the warrant - and that’s the point we’re at now. No charges have been filed yet, and we won’t know the strength of the case until prosecutors decide whether to move forward.
The tip was just the catalyst. If the investigation hadn’t produced anything substantial, nothing would have happened.
We have no idea if the investigation produced anything substantial. There has been no case brought yet, and may never be a case, yet the Lodge has been shut down and it and its employees are suffering severe financial distress. They are getting punished for an alleged crime the state might not even be able to prove exists.
Also important: I haven’t seen any reporting that TABC revoked a license or ordered The Lodge to shut down. Every article simply says they are “closed,” which could be voluntary or temporary. I haven’t seen anything indicating TABC forced a shutdown.
Obviously having bank accounts frozen is game over for a poker room, as it is almost every business.
If TABC did suspend a license, that would fall under administrative rules - which is separate from criminal charges. Just like a bar can lose its liquor license without anyone being arrested.I agree that some agencies overreach, but saying this kind of thing happens “all the time” is hyperbolic. This situation looks like a long regulatory investigation followed by a
It is hyperbolic if you read that to mean I’m claiming most investigations involve over-reach. But I meant that it’s so common you can read a story about a new corrupted or overly heavy handed government investigation every single day, occuring somewhere in the country.
This is a perfect example when a Texas authority has the ability to bankrupt a business without even demonstrating it’s wrongdoing in front if a jury of its peers. How many times has the TABC shut down businesses and then later had to walk back some or all of its claims?
If the lodge is vindicated, Polk and the other owners won’t get their losses repaid, nor their legal costs, which are going to be extremely high. They’ve already lost without having a chance to defend themselves, eventually there may be a hearing or trial where they can lose even more, or be vindicated without so much as an apology.
Or the investigation will drag on for many months without charges until the Lodge finally gets a judge to unfreeze their accounts and allow them to restart business, assuming they can afford to.
The investigators want to use a big number to insinuate something shady is going on but Poker clubs have lots of cash is all this demonstrates. If they have high stakes games it can be easy for a few dozen players to buy and hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of large denomination chips.
How will the poker room be able to cash those players/chips out if the cash has been physically removed from the room, deposited into a bank, then swept into a separate interest-bearing account?
How will the poker room be able to cash those players/chips out if the cash has been physically removed from the room, deposited into a bank, then swept into a separate interest-bearing account?
Clubs typically keep enough cash to handle daily/weekend withdrawals in house. It’s usually not too difficult as deposits usually roughly balance withdrawals. And they can just write you a check for large withdrawals.
But in a “run on the bank” scenario where lots of cash withdrawals hit same day they would have to go to bank.
I assume for large cash withdrawals you might be required to have a waiting period, no different than a bank. For example most BMO branches would not allow me to make five figure cash withdrawals without an appointment days in advance to make sure the branch could have it on hand.
After seeing the actual search warrant particulars for probable cause I'm 99% convinced this is just a punitive fishing expedition going after the biggest fish to scare the other fish away. It's simply a backdoor to kill poker in Texas.
Where did you find the search warrant? I can't locate it anywhere, not TABC, not judicial review, nowhere.
Congrats to Doug on the birth of his daughter!
I hope this all works out so she can have a happy and fulfilling life. I also hope the stress of all of this combined with the stress of a newborn is manageable by Doug.
Incidentally, from what I’ve seen and read, it does seem to me the authorities are trying to make an example out of them and enforcing rules that may technically be on the books but aren’t traditionally enforced.
How will the poker room be able to cash those players/chips out if the cash has been physically removed from the room, deposited into a bank, then swept into a separate interest-bearing account?
Through wire transfers? It’s called escrow, many escrow accounts are interest-bearing (such as RETA and IOLTA accounts).
Then why wouldn't the players/room just use wire transfers in both directions, ie both to buy chips and to redeem them?
It looked like that was what happened if you look at the poker news article. There were wire transfers into the casino as well. And that’s common practice for many high-stakes games.
It looked like that was what happened if you look at the poker news article. There were wire transfers into the casino as well. And that’s common practice for many high-stakes games.
What's being discussed is the $1.3M of cash the Lodge deposited into their bank account, which a 2+2'er said could just be funds from high-stakes players buying chips, to which I replied how can the Lodge cash those players' chips out if the cash got swept into a bank account, to which they replied via a wire, to which I'm now saying why not a wire in both directions, which would mean no $1.3M in cash deposit from the lodge from high-stakes players.
Jade Lew Robbi has some of the best commentary on the subject right now, which is interesting since Doug Polk accused her of "probably" being in a cheating racket. If he was correct then she would know about the financial irregularities the best. Therefore I think Doug is most likely not going to be ultimately prosecuted and that jury's will most likely declare his innocence.
Fair point, I had forgotten that bank accounts were frozen. I was not aware that they were told they could not re-open until the investigation concluded, where did you see that?
No offense, but the post you quoted about Boeing, then gave a subsequently long reply explaining the process literally says "freezes their accounts". You even bolded that paragraph. Are you just totally spitballing?
The reply was meant to be what the process usually looks like, not necessarily specific to what happened here.
It's was meant to just be it's not simply somebody lodged a complaint and everything shut down as in the Boeing example.
Chron: Are poker rooms legal in Texas? Most take a gamble on a loophole in the law
The high-profile raid of an Austin poker club is a great time to look at how these establishments skirt Texas' strict gambling laws.
Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code outlaws most forms of gambling. However, there are a few loopholes. Section 47.04 of the gambling chapter allows you to defend yourself in court if the gambling in question:
- Occurs in what the law calls "a private place"
- Nobody involved receives any "economic benefit" besides winnings
- "The risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all participants," except for skill and luck
How most poker rooms in Texas operate, then, is through that section. The house, instead of taking a percentage of winnings from games, charges a membership fee to prospective players as well as hourly fees. For example, Texas Card House is a regional chain. Its Uptown Houston location refers to itself as a "private social club" and charges $13 for hourly access. The hourly fee varies for entering a tournament.
Whether or not this is actually legal is sort of up for debate. In 2019, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declined to give his legal opinion on poker rooms, citing a legal battle between two Austin poker rooms. So far, the Texas Legislature hasn't really made a big effort to crack down on them, either. Poker clubs are generally very careful, because gambling participants are subject to Class C misdemeanors and promoters face Class A misdemeanors.
The reply was meant to be what the process usually looks like, not necessarily specific to what happened here.
It's was meant to just be it's not simply somebody lodged a complaint and everything shut down as in the Boeing example.
Well, the example of the procedure you gave is mostly correct. I just found it interesting you negated that part given in my opinion, the freezing of the accounts is the biggest issue presently.
I think in these circumstances, there should have to be added evidence (like it could keep someone from fleeing the country as an example) to freeze bank accounts. As others have mentioned , its so detrimental to a business (especially a small one) that freezing their accounts prematurely can bankrupt them. This could only take a few weeks.
Government wants to run their witch hunt, ok fine. But dont prevent people from getting paychecks and **** unless you have some God damn good evidence.
Ideal world and all...
Congrats to Doug on the birth of his daughter!I hope this all works out so she can have a happy and fulfilling life. I also hope the stress of all of this combined with the stress of a newborn is manageable by Doug.Incidentally, from what I've seen and read, it does seem to me the authorities are trying to make an example out of them and enforcing rules that may technically be
The defense of ‘but they don’t normally enforce these laws’ or ‘but we have been doing this for years so it must be ok’ are not defenses at all. That’s like you telling the highway patrol that you were going with the flow. Won’t get you out f the ticket. Nor will the judge listen to it.
The reply was meant to be what the process usually looks like, not necessarily specific to what happened here.
It's was meant to just be it's not simply somebody lodged a complaint and everything shut down as in the Boeing example.
People need to realize TX procedures are unique. There are two nearly independent tracks that can occur here. TABC can choose to press their case under administrative law. Also a local DA or state AJ can pursue criminal cases. And these paths are independent.
Even if Lodge beats the criminal charges or those are not even pursued TABC can revoke liquor license or even fine Lodge up to $25,000 per day. In effect even if gambling isn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt, TABC could win if ALJ agrees under the preponderance of evidence standard. And Lodge could potentially be bankrupted by the fines.
Such penalties could remain even if found not guilty in criminal proceedings because under TX collateral estoppel would likely not apply for multiple reasons.
Result is Lodge might be shut down and other rooms scared into submission even so any criminal proceedings. The landscape for card rooms in TX coul be drastically changed.
