Why No One Should Be Gloating Over The Lodge Poker Room Raid
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Authorites conducted a search of The Lodge Card Club in Texas on Tuesday, which turned out to be due to suspicion of money laundering and illegal gambling.
No one has been arrested or charged with any crime at this point, but the card room — Texas' largest — remains closed during the investigation, and it appears highly unlikely to reopen any time soon. Some poker fans have cracked jokes on Reddit and other social media platforms about the situation, most taking shots at co-owner Doug Polk who, they claim, is getting "karma" for ripping other poker players over past scandals on YouTube.
Whether or not Polk has gone too far attacking his peers isn't the point. The fact of the matter is the legal action against a poker room with nearly 80 card tables and an attached full-scale restaurant and bar impacts far more people than Polk or his co-investors such as Brad Owen and Nik Airball.
Bad Beat for Poker Dealers
The Lodge Card Club in the Austin area employs hundreds of poker dealers, floor managers, bartenders, social media managers, and many other jobs. These employees had nothing to do with any alleged nefarious activity the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is investigating. Some poker dealers even moved to Texas from other states to work at The Lodge, and the income they receive from their job is necessary to pay bills and feed their families.
A dealer from The Lodge who relocated to Austin for the job shared her sentiments on the closure in a Facebook post.
"It's hard to stay positive when we have zero information, no timeline, nothing to look forward to, and no hope for reopening... but I feel it's necessary to adress the overwhelming amount of positivity and support that we've been given today. For every bad apple, there are 1000 good ones and I'm so grateful for every one of you today," dealer Alisa Maria wrote.
A Facebook group called "Lodge employee side work group" was created to help employees of The Lodge find side gigs during the closure. Many members of the Austin poker community have already posted in the group seeking someone for various odd jobs.
Beyond the job losses, there are others who will be affected, including all the poker playerrs who who enjoy playing at The Lodge — and there are hundreds of them. Some have outstanding poker chips in their possession. What if the card room never reopens and poker has another Full Tilt Poker situation where the business can't cover outstanding balances? Or, in this case, outstanding chips. That would benefit exactly no one, and would take money out of the poker economy.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
As mentioned earlier, no arrests have been made. No one is in jail facing charges. It's unclear at this point if that will ever change. But the point is no one knows if any crimes or wrongdoings have been committed.
We don't even know exactly why the TABC conducted the raid. The only information the TABC has released is that they are investigating money laundering and illegal gambling. They haven't specified what sort of evidence, if any, they've uncovered or who within The Lodge may be under suspicion. Nor has it been revealed how they even came about looking into the business dealings of The Lodge.
It's possible no arrests will ever be made and The Lodge Card Club will return to action before long having been charged with no crimes. Or, perhaps, the outcome will go the other way and the poker club will never reopen. Either way, until further details about the allegations come out, perhaps we should all reserve judgment.
