Tales of a Dallas poker raid

[maurile]

Tales of a Dallas Poker Raid

Excerpt from an email by someone arrested in one of the SWAT raids:

<font color="blue">On June 24, 2006, I was present at an underground poker room that was raided by the Dallas SWAT team, Dallas Sherriff’s Dept., Dallas Police Dept., &amp; Dallas Code Enforcement.

The raid occurred around 7:40 p.m. I was in the kitchen area which was just inside the front door when suddenly there was loud banging from the door. Within seconds, the room was full of Dallas SWAT officers yelling for everyone to put their hands in the air. Behind the Dallas SWAT team came many more law enforcement officers and several camera crews for the A&amp;E reality show, Dallas SWAT. The camera crew’s chests were clearly marked as “A&amp;E Film Crew.”

Bear in mind that, prior to police entering, the place was virtually quiet. There was the sound of poker chips in the air, but not much else. The players were essentially professionals and working stiffs having fun…there were doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. There was hardly anything “dangerous” about the place at all. In fact, the cops found no weapons in the facility or on anyone there. The show of force and weaponry brought by the cops was simply outrageous and unjustified, given the circumstances, but, then again, are they enforcing the law or making a TV show?

After entering, all players at the ten or so poker tables were made to put their hands on the tables while they were individually processed and released with a Class C misdemeanor gambling ticket. After getting their tickets, the players were accosted by A&amp;E folks trying to get everyone to sign releases allowing the footage to be shown on TV. Some signed, others didn’t. The only folks arrested were game operators, dealers, one player with an outstanding traffic warrant, and me. </font>

Full article here ...

[EGO]

That's pretty BS by Dallas PD, but I'm not suprised. Long story short - leave your weed at home.

[yimyammer]

I live in Dallas and decided to show up for that tournament because it had a 10K starting stack and was going to be what I hoped would be good practice for the WSOP which I had just won a seat for.

Early in the tourny I almost gambled on a drawing hand that would have knocked me out. Had I gambled, I would have lost, gone home early and missed the entire raid. Its the only time I ever wanted to get knocked out of a tourney.

The whole event struck me as all too convenient for the TV show and was a huge waste of time for the Vice squad and Swat team, not to mention all the players.

I am a homebuilder and after talking to the players at my table during the raid, I learned that everyone there was like me, self employed or holding a respectable job whose taxes were actually paying the salaries of the individuals that deemed it necessary to raid the "Evil" poker game.

This was only the 2nd time I've been to a private game and I was "lucky" enough to be there when a raid occured, lol!

This countries inabilty to focus its prioroties gives me grave concern for our future.

Suffice it to say that this raid was a joke and a complete waste of everyones time. I didn't have the time or energy to spend fighting what I was technically guilty of so I just paid the $200ish and put the whole thing behind me.

[big e]

So was the fine for the pipe as the gambling charge was drop.