nyc poker room in brooklyn - raided?

[IgorSmiles]

I found this at poker.meetup.com:

"The BPC was raided by last night and the members in attendance were issued summonses for an
arcane violation known as "loitering for the purpose of gambling". It looks like it will be closed for good.
Those cited should plead not guilty as the law is 1) unconstitutional because gambling itself is not illegal in new york and merely loitering anywhere cannot be a crime because it would violate the 1st amendment. (at least two New York courts have suggested this and some commentators have said this "loitering for the purpose of gambling" law is unconstitutional and 2) notwistanding, poker is not gambling, instead it is a game of skill akin to bridge thus not covered under the law.
These are legitamite defenses and are worth making as it is only a violation anyways and the most you have to lose is a small fine.

The owner of the club will probably face different , more serious, charges and only the second, more challenging, defense will apply."

[freekobe]

I did some further research to confirm and it appears that the posted legal research is correct. I couldn't find any NYC specific law that would govern this, so the state law would control.

Perhaps the dealers/owners got misdemeanors. Again, I am only very confident of the raid. As to who got the misdemeanors, I am less confident, though I will try to find out.

[spadeclub99]

Is this because of DA Hynes upcoming re-election battle, he faces a tough challenge in the Dem primary for Kings County D.A. Yesterday Hynes said he thinks sports betting should be legalized in NY as he was announcing the arrest of numerous sports betting operators.
daily news

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
However, players should not be subject to arrest. YMMV... as they say, you may beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have a friend who was in the diamond club when it got raided (f*** you, giuliani) and if I recall correctly, he said that they checked ID's from all of the players there and wrote down their info, but then nothing after happened with that. Certainly no charges were pressed against the players. I would presume that they wanted names and addresses of players to try to get them to testify in the case agaisnt the owners, but who knows.

[TakeMeToTheRiver]

loitering for the purpose of gambling... that is interesting... I looked it up...

[ QUOTE ]
A person is guilty of loitering when he:
1. Loiters, remains or wanders about in a public place for the purpose
of begging; or
2. Loiters or remains in a public place for the purpose of gambling
with cards, dice or other gambling paraphernalia; or ...
[a bunch of other unrelated stuff here]


[/ QUOTE ]

Loitering is a violation -- like a parking ticket -- so there is no criminal record, potential jail time, etc. Just a fine.

But is BPC a public place if it is a private club?
hmmm...

Anyway, I had never heard of anyone being ticketed for that in New York before now... very interesting... back to the books.

By the way, the Brooklyn D.A. believes that sports betting should be legal and taxed. I don't know if he ever gave his opinion on poker...

[Luv2DriveTT]

I know numerous people who were at the Mayfair when it was raided (more than once aparently). They do a background check on every player, and they take any player who has a criminal warrent or record (as well as those not carrying ID) downtown for processing, everyone else can go home. Money on the table is confiscated, but the playre a,owed to redeem their chips (under the watchful eye of the NYPD.

My fear is related to the IRS. Since many of the clubs keep records of the players IDs, what is the potential for damage even if the player was not caught in the raid?

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Derek in NYC]

I would imagine that regardless of registration information about players, no club keeps records on its players' relative wins and losses. So while proof of your membership in a club might support the inference that you gambled, it would not support the inference that you won money that you were obligated to report on your tax returns. Additionally, it would be extremely unusual for the local DA to deliberately involve a federal agency in a local investigation, unless there were clear evidence that a federal law had been broken. Thus, if the gambling establishment had organized crime ties, a federal offshoot investigation would be quite possible. But absent evidence of this or similar federal interests, I do not believe there is reason to worry.

[Voltron87]

this rumor is true, I don't know about the charges, but BPC was ridiculously aggressive in its ads and they never checked ID (apparently). I know the NYPC is pretty aggressive on ads (craigslist, some other site), the owners are aware of that, and they might be next if they're not careful.

[TheJunkyardGod]

How often do things like this happen? I might just stick to AC (i'm about halfway between both cities.

[Luv2DriveTT]

[ QUOTE ]
Is this because of DA Hynes upcoming re-election battle, he faces a tough challenge in the Dem primary for Kings County D.A. Yesterday Hynes said he thinks sports betting should be legalized in NY as he was announcing the arrest of numerous sports betting operators.
daily news

[/ QUOTE ]

Is there a possibility that they were also running a sports pool from BPC?

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]