Another NYC club raided last night

[Mattyspin]

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No no no. It was the Mayfair.

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lol

[Margo]

... and I'm officially an idiot for not checking B&M before heading down to the club this evening. This [censored] sucks.

[graydot]

What are the club initials?

No harm in giving that out, I would like to know which got busted

My club closed down to avoid getting raided, so no B&M for me this week [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[other1]

This episode brought to you by the letter P and the number 5.

[baiter]

what actually happens to the owners/operators of these clubs? A friend told me they just get a slap on the wrist; maybe a fine but no criminal charge/jail time. I know many of the previously busted spots reopen quickly afterwords either in the same or another location.

Also, was this club in Manhattan or Brooklyn? It seems the smaller Brooklyn clubs have less to worry about...

Finally, how exactly do the police handle such raids? Do they have a special investigative taskforce? Do they randomly enforce certain clubs that get a little to big? Do you think there are certain players in the NYC underground that work with the cops?

[TMTTR]

Too many questions. My head hurts. But the club discussed in this thread was located in Manhattan and will be missed by all.

You should forward your remaining questions to New York's finest or the New York County district attorney's office and post their answers here.

Edit: From my limited knowledge, the other response to these questions (below this one) is full of inaccuracies (big and small) and unsubstantiated theories... so take it as you will.

[BriMc]

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what actually happens to the owners/operators of these clubs? A friend told me they just get a slap on the wrist; maybe a fine but no criminal charge/jail time. I know many of the previously busted spots reopen quickly afterwords either in the same or another location.

Also, was this club in Manhattan or Brooklyn? It seems the smaller Brooklyn clubs have less to worry about...

Finally, how exactly do the police handle such raids? Do they have a special investigative taskforce? Do they randomly enforce certain clubs that get a little to big? Do you think there are certain players in the NYC underground that work with the cops?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never heard of anyone getting more than a desk appearance ticket for a straight gambling bust. Sometimes they'll find drugs or a gun on someone in the club and that will get them locked up till they see the judge, which can take up to 48 hours in our great city, but the injustice of that is a whole other story. The fines for the owners can be quite substantial, I've heard stories of them being well into six figures for some of the larger rooms busted, but in proportion to the money made its not very much. If they get a real hardon for someone they could try to work up a conspiracy or RICO case against someone but that would entail getting the feds involved and thats only happened once on Long Island cause the owner got smart/stupid with the local judge and tried to cliam he was non-profit and therefor not in violation of NYS gambling law.

This is just my opinion, but it is pretty widely shared by most players and staff. Local cops don't want the rooms to be permanently closed, they just want the money. When a place gets raided, who's to say if there was 10k in the kitty or 100k. In some of the bigger raids, that made the papers, the amount of money reported seized was almost an order of magnitude smaller than it should have been for the time it was raided and the amount of people that were there. Its alot easier/safer to bust places periodically to get the money than it is to take ongoing bribes for protection and risk corruption charges.

Smaller clubs always get busted less, regardless of location for this reason. Theres not enought money in the club to make it worth busting, a place with only 1 or 2 low stakes tables going isn't going to have much more than 10k on hand.

As far as how a bust happens, it varies. A big place with alot of money in it generally gets busted via the coordinated effort of some special NYPD squad, theres a bunch of them, and none specifically target poker. They get an udercover in side so they can get a warrant, then they go bust it. Smaller places usually go down because of "complaints" be they real or made up. This is usually done by precinct cops. They know where a place is, but don't have or can't get a warrant. If theres some kind of probable cause, like a noise complaint they go and bust the place. They aren't interested in making any serious case here, just picking up a few grand for a nights work. Safer than riping off drug dealers and what not.

Do some players drop a dime, yes, people are scumbags and if they are in some [censored] they'll use what they can as leverage.

The easiest and stupidest way places get busted is via email lists. If your place gets busted and you open a new place, DON'T USE THE SAME EMAIL LIST TO ANNOUNCE THE NEW PLACE. Thats just common sense.

[psandman]

I don't know the specifics, however the relevant charge that a operator/dealer would face is promoting Gambling in the second degree, which is a class A misdemeanor.

A class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to 1 year in jail and/or a fine not to exceed $1,000 (there is provision in the law where the maximum fine can be increased to double the amount the person profited by their offense). 3 Years probation is also a possibility.

Of course if there is something else going on at the club, bookmaking, moneylending, drugs etc. that can reslut in felony charges.

If the only charge is a class A misdemeanor, of a nonviolent sort such as gambling, and the defendant is a first time offender I would shocked if there was any jail time involved. In fact I would be shocked if anything other than a fine were imposed along with a forfeiture of money seized.

[brettbrettr]

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... and I'm officially an idiot for not checking B&M before heading down to the club this evening. This [censored] sucks.

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HAHAHAHA. F**king Little Bus.