Prime Social Poker Club Raid
Prime Social Poker
Prime Social Club Houston

After being shut down due to a raid by lawenforcement earlier this year, there were questions as to whether Houston’sPrime Social Poker Club would ever reopen. Those questions have now been answeredas the owners of the membership only poker club have stated they will reopen inSeptember.

September 5 Official Date for Reopening

Accordingto KPRC Houston Digital Editor Aaron Barker, spokesman Wayne Dolcefino issueda statement on the behalf of the ownership of Prime Social Poker Club with thedetails that many were waiting for. In that statement, Dolcefino said thatSeptember 5 would be the official reopening of the club, with the businesscontacting prior employees in a way of getting the business back up and runningquicker. “We look forward to our 11,000 memberscoming back and bringing a bunch of friends with them,” Dolcefino said.

There was no statement from the club regardingany changes to the club with the reopening, but its business format was somethingthat was sweeping Texas as a whole. Because of laws in the state prohibitingTexas Hold’em (and gambling as a whole), many entrepreneurs – the owners ofPrime Social Poker Club – felt they had found a loophole in the laws. Openingup as “membership only” clubs and charging a membership fee for entrance, thesenew poker rooms offered cash games and tournament poker to a ravenous audience.The businesses didn’t take any rake – another issue that plagues poker businesses– and instead made revenues (after the membership fees) through the sale ofrefreshments.

In the city, Prime Social Poker Club and one of its rivals, Post Oak Poker Club (there has been no announcement as to a reopening for Post Oak), became the two biggest operations in the city. Houston’s Finest and Largest Social Poker Club. Prime Social is a brand new entertainment destination with a full service restaurant and bar. A large, multi-table gaming area is also available to play your favorite games such as poker, chess, backgammon, cribbage and many more.

For more than a year in Houston, these clubswere allowed to operate and became quite popular. In the city, Prime SocialPoker Club and one of its rivals, Post Oak Poker Club (there has been noannouncement as to a reopening for Post Oak), became the two biggest operationsin the city, extremely popular with poker players who could now settle in for agame in their home town rather than take a long trip to Louisiana or Oklahoma.That was until this spring, however, when the local District Attorney started astrange journey that ended up leaving law enforcement highly embarrassed.

Ending Up with “Ogg” on Their Faces

In a stunning raid in May Houston lawenforcement, acting at the behest of District Attorney Kim Ogg, entered boththe Prime Social and Post Oak Poker Clubs, arrested the ownership of theoperations (charging them with money laundering), seized over $200,000 in cashon the premises and froze their bank accounts. Casino jobs in mississippi. In total, nine people from bothclubs were arrested and, naturally, the businesses were shut down after theraids. On the way to their day in court, however, a strange twist occurred.

Almost as stunningly as the raids happened, Ogg would drop the cases against the nine owners in July after evidence appeared that the two businesses had solicited the District Attorney’s office for legal guidance on their operations and had been given the go-ahead. In particular, a consultant to Ogg was allegedly paid $250,000 to work on an ordinance that would make the clubs fully legal in the city limits and avoid the potential for such a situation as what occurred in May. That ordinance never came to light (another long story), but it was enough to demonstrate that the DA’s office was not acting as a neutral arbiter in the case.

Faced with these mistakes, Ogg was left withno choice but to drop the charges against the Houston club owners. Anotherlawsuit, charging the clubs with violations of “nuisance” laws in the city, wasdropped also because the criminal investigations that they came from wererendered moot by the dismissal of charges. The best that Ogg could do was toforward the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigations for furtherexamination as her office was left highly embarrassed.

What Will Happen?

In roughly two weeks, Prime Social Poker Club will reopen and probably will have a throng of players waiting to get to the tables. Prime Social Poker Club has stated that they are “reviewing their options” as to reclaiming any lost revenue from being shut down since May, potentially revenues that could total into the high six-figures. Results gym hours. But Prime Social Poker Club will be back come the beginning of September – and hopefully without the harassment from law enforcement.

A pair of Houston card rooms were raided by local law enforcement Wednesday afternoon and more crackdowns of these establishments might be on the way.

Prime Social Club and Post Oak Poker Club were raided by officers from the Vice Division of the Houston Police Department. In total, nine owners and managers were arrested on charges of money laundering and engaging in organized criminal activity.

“Poker rooms are illegal in Texas,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement. “We are changing the paradigm regarding illegal gambling by moving up the criminal chain and pursuing felony money laundering and engaging in organized crime charges against owners and operators.”

Officers seized computers and hard drives in the raid. At Prime Social Club, the raid took place just a few minutes before the start of a $580 no-limit hold’em tournament with a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told local media that this is just the start of a larger crackdown on poker rooms in Houston.

“We’re not going to tolerate it,” Acevedo told the local ABC News affiliate. “We got two of the bigger ones today and this is just the beginning. We need to shut them down. If you want to have these kind of establishments, the legislature needs to authorize it. Otherwise, we’re going to do our jobs and shut them down.”

Law enforcement clearly believes these clubs are breaking the state’s gambling laws. The operators, on the other hand, believe that they are in full compliance with state law since they don’t collect a rake. The card rooms only charge membership fees and consider themselves a private club.

“We’re just facilitating the play between the players,” said Daniel Kebort, one of the five owners of the Post Oak Poker Club that were arrested yesterday.

Wayne Dolcefino, who worked for Prime Social Club both in researching the law before the club opened its doors and in promoting certain events, said that the idea that they are hiding a criminal operation is laughable.

“In my view, a business trying to cover their tracks wouldn’t be in a giant building on Westheimer,” said Dolcefino.

While no players were arrested, both clubs had their bank accounts and assets frozen. According to an October 2018 article from the San Antonio Express, there are “about 40” of these poker clubs operating throughout the state.

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