Two Plus Two Older Archives - Rochester Poker Club owner Gets arrested

(March 17, 2004) — Three people involved in a public poker game have been arrested on charges of promoting gambling.

Vincent “Jim” DeFranco, 60, and Sally King, 55, both of 237 Andrews St., and Perry P. Peck, 23, of Cortland, Cortland County, were each charged March 5 with a misdemeanor. The games were alleged to have taken place at 237 Andrews St.

According to court records, DeFranco ran the card games and told an undercover police officer how he would make money from each pot played.

DeFranco also instructed a dealer how to “rake” the money, or take the house cut after each hand.

King and Peck are accused of being dealers who took that illegal cut, anywhere from $2 per hand to 5 percent of each hand.

The games are alleged to have occurred on four Thursdays and Fridays since Jan. 29. The undercover officer, a sergeant with the Greece Police Department assigned to the Greater Rochester Area Narcotics Enforcement Team, said he played 100 to 120 hands.

DeFranco was interviewed for a Democrat and Chronicle Weekend cover story that ran Feb. 26 about his Texas Hold’em Club of Rochester.

Contacted Tuesday night, DeFranco said the charges stem from private games, not from tournaments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There are no legal issues dealing with the tournaments, he said.

“The justice system is more acceptable of the clubs and gambling because society is,’’ DeFranco said during the February interview. ‘‘Do they want to put me in jail for providing something everybody wants?”

Monroe County District Attorney Michael Green said gambling in which the host automatically profits has long been on the prosecutorial radar.

“One of the things that makes these games illegal, it’s not just a bunch of folks sitting around throwing money in a pot and some win one and some lose, but all of the money goes back to the players,” he said. “There’s a game being run for profit.”

The three defendants were given appearance tickets and were arraigned in Rochester City Court. Preliminary hearings are later this month. If convicted, they each face up to a year in jail.