A raid by New York law enforcement on an alleged poker operation in the state demonstrates what “to do” and what “not to do” when having a private game.
On October 8, the New York State Police Special Investigations Unit acted on a search warrant on a former school building in Saratoga Springs. In that raid, law enforcement seized poker items such as tables and chips along with approximately $3000 in cash. Two men, John McTiernan and Arthur Wexler, were arrested in the raid as the alleged ringleaders of the operation as they rented the property for the purpose of the poker games.
According to a report in The Saratogian by Lucian McCarty, the police state that the operation that McTiernan and Wexler were allegedly running wasn’t a simple poker game but an illegal poker club. “Just a bunch of guys playing poker in their basement is not illegal,” Lieutenant John Durling of the Special Investigations Unit said to McCarty. “(But) they were raking the pots and profiting from the game.”
McCarty reports that players in the games would buy in for $300 for a variety of games being offered in the establishment and that, for tournaments, a $50 buy in was the norm. Investigators allege that McTiernan and Wexler, after taking the buy-ins, would then act as dealers for the games, taking a rake from each pot played, accepting tips and cutting some “juice” from the tournaments instead of awarding the entirety of the buy-ins back to the players. This is apparently where the two men charged in the case went afoul of New York gaming laws.
Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy III is quoted by McCarty as saying, “This is alleged to be someone who is getting a cut of the game, that is the criminal conduct (in this case),” Murphy said. “Playing poker in of itself is not a crime,” he said, noting that if all the funds were paid back out to the players there would have been no crime committed. By taking a cut of the players’ buy-ins, Lt. Durling concurred, saying to McCarty, “It would be like someone running their own lottery or being a bookie.”
The case seems to have been thoroughly investigated by the New York authorities. After receiving the complaints, the NYSIU conducted surveillance for approximately a month and a half. The games would draw in around 40 players per night and, on three occasions, McTiernan was alleged to have stepped into the “dealer’s box,” including the night of the raid.
McTiernan and Wexler are facing misdemeanor charges for the alleged poker game, as the $3000 seized by police didn’t reach the felony benchmark of $5000.
Perhaps trying to blunt criticism from local citizens, DA Murphy addressed the issue of organizations, such as churches and other non-profit groups, who host games such as bingo or offer “casino nights” and make a profit from those activities. Murphy notes that those games have been officially licensed by the state, saying, “They are highly regulated,” Murphy said to McCarty, to make sure the games are fair and there is no fraudulent activities going on. “If you are going to play with your hard-earned cash and lose, you want to know you lost if fairly.”
This hasn’t stopped the locals from expressing their outrage through The Saratogian’s website. “OK, so gambling is bad unless the state gets a cut…what a bunch of hypocrites,” one reader wrote about McCarty’s report. “What a “free” country…we live in a police state,” another wrote. “Gee, glad these “criminals” got caught,” the reader facetiously finished. Another reader, perhaps rather accurately, responded, “The poker players must have been aware that a part of the pot was being taken by the organizers of the game. If they were OK with it, what’s the big deal?”
The raid in New York once again points out the bottom line if you are going to run your own poker game at home. In many locales, poker isn’t illegal if you don’t take a cut of the money from the activity. Once you take some of that money – whether it is a rake from each pot, a “time buy” or a little juice out of the tournament buy-ins – then it becomes a criminal operation in virtually every state.
