[llleisure]

No idea about NY but I have friends that deal in underground rooms in TX so I can speak to that. Worst case, if the cops want to be a pain in the butt they can charge the dealers with gambling promotion which is a felony but more often the employees - dealers, wait staff, etc - only get a mistomeanor charge not the felony charge. The people actually running the game tend to get the gambling promotion charge. They DO tend to take all the employees to jail - the customers they tend to write tickets and let them go.

The lesser charge is a fine and ticket and MAY be the type of charge where if you ask for a trial they wind up dropping it anyway but you need to pay an attorney for that. And this is TX not NY.