Why Is Underground Poker Illegal
You Can Be Cheated. One of the main reasons behind the rise of regulated casinos in places like Las. It’s pretty unusual to see people going to jail for underground gambling. In the state of New York it is legal to play poker for money but illegal for the organizers to profit. That’s called a “rake”—when the people running the game take a percentage of the pot for themselves or charge the players an hourly fee. This Underground Poker Game Cost Celebrities MILLIONS. Today we are not only recounting the story of Molly Bloom’s illegal gambling ring, which by the way, was also the subject of the Aarson Sorkin movie, Molly’s Game, but we are talking about some of the biggest losses that occurred at the table. Get ready to go all in as we discuss. It is illegal to play poker online for money in the state of Washington. The state of Washington passed a law in 2006 making online poker a felony. Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars responded by no longer offering services to residents of that state, but they continued to operate in the rest of the country.
- Why Are Underground Casinos Illegal
- Are Underground Poker Games Legal
- Why Is Underground Poker Illegal In America
- Why Is Underground Poker Illegal
- Why Are Underground Poker Games Illegal
- Why Is Underground Poker Illegal Money
I used to play in a lot of underground poker games in Dallas, Texas, but I haven’t done that in years. It’s not really necessary anymore, because Choctaw and Winstar are both a short drive from the DFW Metroplex.
It did occur to me that a post about underground poker games and what they’re like throughout the world might make for an interesting blog post, though.
It’s just poker played somewhere where it’s against the law.
Laws vary dramatically from one jurisdiction to another, and enforcement also varies from place to place. At one time, most of the underground cardrooms in Dallas operated with impunity. Later, SWAT teams were breaking down the doors of such places on a weekly basis.
How the Underground Poker Scene Works (Generally)
If you’re playing in someone’s home, it’s usually legal to participate in a poker game – as long as no one’s profiting from the game besides the players. In other words, in most jurisdictions, most home poker games are legal.
But if the homeowner is charging an entry fee or taking a percentage of each pot, the laws start getting trickier. In some jurisdictions, poker businesses are just plain illegal. In others, they’re legal, but you need a license to operate such a business.
Depending on the jurisdiction, it might be legal to PLAY in an underground poker game, even if it’s illegal to host the game and profit from it. At one time, it was a misdemeanor in my area to play in such a game, but it was a felony to host the game.
Why Are Underground Casinos Illegal
Most underground cardroom hosts worry more about armed robbers than they do law enforcement, but that varies based on how aggressive the local police force is.
How Cardrooms Make Money
Underground cardrooms make money the same way casino poker rooms make money.
Most of the time, they charge a rake – a percentage of each pot that goes into a lockbox at the table before the pot is awarded. The standard size rake is 5% of each pot.
It’s not hard to calculate how much money a cardroom stands to make, either.
For Example:Suppose you have a cardroom with 4 tables that operates 12 hours a night, and you have an average of 8 players at each table. Let’s assume that the average pot per hand is about $50.
If there are 30 hands being played at each table per hour, you’re looking at $1500 in pots per table, so $6000 in pots per hour.
5% of that is $300 per hour – over a 12 hour shift, you’re making $3600.
You can adjust those numbers up or down based on the stakes, number of tables, hours open, etc.
At the underground cardrooms I played at, beer was always free, and you were encourage to bring your own liquor. Most of them also offered free meals.
A business generating $3600 a day can afford to offer players such perks.
That’s not the only way to generate revenue from a cardroom, though. The host of such an establishment will also sometimes sell food and drink, especially if the games being played are low stakes.
And some cardrooms just charge a flat fee per hour per player or a cover charge to walk in the door and play.
Other cardrooms offer other casino games like blackjack, craps, or roulette. Such cardrooms might have more in common with an underground casino, though, which is a related but different business.
Underground Poker in the United States
The United States doesn’t have a blanket federal law related to poker. The laws vary by state.
In most states, though, running a cardroom for profit at least requires a license. In many states, it’s just flat-out illegal.
I’ve mentioned some of my experiences playing at the underground poker rooms in Dallas, but one city in the United States is more famous than most when it comes to underground poker:
Underground Poker in New York
Are Underground Poker Games Legal
In New York, you can play poker without breaking the law, even though hosting the game is illegal.
This has led to a vibrant underground poker scene in New York where some of the clubs have become famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view).
The Diamond Club and the Mayfair Club are the 2 most famous of these, but they’ve both been shut down for over 20 years.
This doesn’t mean that all poker clubs in New York are closed, though. Some of them are still open, while others closed, although at a later date than the 2 most famous ones I just mentioned.
Famous poker players spotted in underground poker clubs in New York City include Alex Rodriguez.
Most poker clubs in New York now are small so as to avoid retaliation from the lawdogs.
Underground Poker in England
Poker is only supposed to be played in casinos, but private games are allowed if they’re low stakes. They even allow poker in neighborhood pubs, although the laws maintain a complicated set of restrictions related to these games.
It’s more or less common knowledge that underground poker games happen regularly in London, but they aren’t as infamous as United States poker rooms like the ones in New York.
Underground Poker in Canada
As in the United States, it’s illegal to run an unlicensed gambling business in Canada – and that includes poker games. In fact, it’s a serious crime where you can face prison time.
Poker rooms are legal in Canada, but as in most of the United States, it seems to be legal in Canada to play in and host a home poker game – as long as you’re not taking a rake.
One difference between Canada and the United States is the difference in the penalties for underground poker. In the United States, such penalties are pretty consistent – at least when you’re talking about the penalties within a specific state. (Such penalties almost certainly vary from one state to another, though.)
In Canada, on the other hand, the judge over each case has a wide amount of latitude in levying penalties and handing down sentences related to underground poker.
Is Online Poker Automatically Considered “Underground” Poker?
The answer to this varies from one location to another. For example, the United States has made it clear that – at least in most states – internet poker for real money is illegal. There are 3 states that offer legalized, regulated poker games.
By definition, any poker site accepting players from one of those states that ISN’T licensed by the state authorities – like an overseas cardroom, for example – is operating an underground poker operation.
And in most states, online poker sites accepting United States players are usually run by overseas sportsbooks.
The wisdom of playing in such games for real money is questionable.
Anyone who remembers poker’s Black Friday on April 15, 2011 knows how frustrating it can be to have your money tied up in an offshore poker room and being unable to access it.
This is a possibility you face when playing online poker at a cardroom that isn’t licensed and regulated in your jurisdiction.
Molly’s Game
One of the most famous underground poker games of all time was hosted by Molly Bloom in an apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. It was a private, high-stakes game that multiple celebrities participated in. Some of the names associated with her game include the Olsen twins, Ben Affleck, and Alex Rodriguez.
She was arrested in 2010 for failing to pay her taxes. She was arrested again in 2013 for money laundering and for running an illegal sports betting business. She was one of 33 people involved in this arrest.
Bloom served a year of probation and did 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
She wrote a memoir about her experiences, titled Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World.
Said book was adapted as a movie by Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the screenplay and directed. Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, and Sorkin was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Conclusion
A certain type of personality is attracted to underground poker games. In fact, it’s not unusual – after all, gamblers are risk-takers by definition.
I’m not convinced that playing underground poker games is the best way to go about things, though. Living near the DFW Metroplex, I just drive to the Winstar – it’s worth the 30 minute trip for me to play in relative safety and luxury.
Your mileage may vary. Just don’t mistake the information I offer as a recommendation to break the law. I’d never suggest that you do that.
If you decide to break the law anyway, at least be careful when you’re doing so.
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This month, via the social sharing platform Reddit, a poker dealer and former player started telling his story. However, this was no ordinary story. Over the past fortnight, Julius - not his real name - has started to reveal all about the illegal underground poker games in New York that he played or dealt in over the past fifteen years.
Feedback from the poker community has been overwhelmingly positive, with hundreds of poker players, dealers, and fans rushing to request more chapters. It’s the latest poker binge and we caught up with the creator.
“I was really nervous when I made the first post,” says Julius, clearly shocked by the popularity of his story-telling. ‘I thought I was going to get a ton of crap for it. I’d been browsing the sub-Reddit on poker for a while and looking through the content I couldn’t find anything that was remotely similar.”
'I’d been browsing the subreddit on poker for a while and looking through the content I couldn’t find anything that was remotely similar.'
Julius is, as you might expect, deeply entrenched in the poker world, and currently resides in Vegas; the ‘gambling capital of the world’. Having left New York some time ago, he feels like he has sufficient distance from the subject matter to tell all about working in underground poker rooms. The kind of places the creators of Rounders visited to research the 1998 movie.
“I work for a few different poker rooms in Vegas and the most common thing people ask me is ‘Where are you from?’ Eighty percent of the time, the next question is ‘Did you play poker in New York?’ When I tell that I played and dealt in underground clubs, they want me to tell them the crazy stories or if I saw cheating.”
READ ALSO: The new PokerStars Marketing Code is out!
That’s how the Reddit story started. One night, Julius left his last table and got home fuelled with an impulse to write about when he first visited a poker club when he was a 16-year-old. The next thing he knew, it was three hours later, and he’d created the first chapter.
“I have no formal training in writing and I’m sure that’s evident. But I’ve always enjoyed being articulate in my life. I’ve never done anything even remotely similar to this. I have no idea where this came from.”
The impulse has taken him to eight chapters to date, with plenty more to come. The one-time computer programmer, who was born in California but then moved to the East Coast and New York, loved the perks in New York, and money was the root of it.
“I had a pretty good job at a software company but always dealt poker on the side at nights or weekends, because the money was fantastic, and it was cash.”
Julius became drawn into the poker world more and more. It came to a point where he was making a lot more money in the poker games than he was in his regular job.
“I was happier doing it. I love the game and the industry. It brings me a lot of joy.”
That joy runs right through his story, and despite having to change a few names and clubs (‘Out of respect and not to blow a spot’), Julius may have protected people’s names but he lays the tale out there as honestly as it comes. This is the truth of what dealing to poker players or playing poker underground is really like. Julius believes dealing has made him a better player, but that’s not something he thinks applies to everyone.
'I had a pretty good job at a software company but always dealt poker on the side at nights or weekends, because the money was fantastic, and it was cash.'
“My favorite book is the myth of poker talent by Alex Fitzgerald. The best players in the world put in the most time and work the hardest.”
Why Is Underground Poker Illegal In America
As a dealer, Julius thinks he and his fellow dealers have the opportunity to pick up poker skills to pay the bills. It all comes down to that hard work element.
“We get to observe tens of thousands of hands on a daily basis eight hours a day. If you study the game and pay attention to the hands you’re dealing, you can learn quite a bit.”
Julius believes most dealers have an advantage - but only if they pay attention to players they deal to and embrace the study sign of the game. But he does... so why isn’t he the best poker player in the game?
“I have horrible bankroll management!” he says with a rueful laugh. “I used to play $5/$10 but the game has become extremely nitty. I’ll play $1/$3 in Vegas because it’s so easy. I get the itch for poker two or three times a week, but I deal every other day; I work seven days a week.”
Despite his obvious love for the game, Julius, now nearing 30 years old, has no desire to turn professional in poker. But he does love mixed games and says that mixing it up helped his No-Limit Hold’em game immensely. Some stories will come up in future chapters that explore that... along with police raids, crazy poker hands, and getting out of New York just as Julius’ luck was running out.
“Because I titled it ‘Inside Underground NY Poker’, I guess it’ll end when I made the move to Las Vegas. In my life, that was a new chapter for me, but I’m only up to 2007 right now, so I’ve got some time to go through before I leave.”
Now Vegas-based, Julius’s adventures have continued above board with a dealer’s license. He loves being in the gambling capital of the world. He made the decision to move to Vegas because he’d had enough of dealing underground illegally. It was only a matter of time before something bad happened in New York. But hey, if you’re reading his adventures, you’ll know that danger is on 5th Street waiting for him.
Read it yet? If not, you can find all the chapters right here. Here at PokerNews, we’re hooked.
Inside Underground NY Poker Reddit Links
Inside Underground NY Poker Excerpt
With Julius' permission, an excerpt of one of his stories. This bit comes from the opening post; Part 1.
“When you rang the bell, they’d ask you who you were, you’d tell them how and who invited you, and in a minute or two you’d be buzzed in through the first steel door. After entering, you’d come to a second steel door with another camera positioned in front, which only opened from the inside.
'you’d come to a second steel door with another camera positioned in front, which only opened from the inside.'
Why Is Underground Poker Illegal
When you finally entered the room, it was gorgeous — clean, large, comfortable, and was equipped with everything you wanted in a club. A full-sized kitchen, multiple clean bathrooms (one even had a shower), a lounge area, a high limit room, waitresses, a bunch of large flat screen TV’s, and a smoking room among other things. The first thing you’d notice was that they had 6 high-quality poker tables paired with executive chairs, not including the one in the high-limit room. This club was spacious.
Why Are Underground Poker Games Illegal
As you walked in, a valet would ask for your keys and he would go fetch your vehicle and park it in an organized fashion amongst the others. You’d then make your way over to the podium and tell the floor which game you wanted to play — they usually had at least several games going — $1/$3, $2/$5, and $5/$10 NL and higher when it ran, but the much higher games were much more private.
Strapped with $1,000 in cash on me, I request a seat in the $1/$3 game and eventually make my way onto the table. The max buy-in was $500, which I opted for because most stacks at the table were deep. It didn’t really matter anyway — this was my first time playing in an underground poker club and I was nervous as hell.”
Why Is Underground Poker Illegal Money
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