Another Reason to Legalize Poker: Player Safety

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As Ed Miller writes, there was a New York poker hijack that ended in murder last week.

http://www.notedpokerauthority.com/n...gal-poker.html

In Houston this week, a game on Airline Drive was hijacked on Monday, resulting in a shooting. The player is in ICU. Another game was hijacked on Tuesday night.

In the past couple of months, 2 more Houston games were robbed. 6 weeks ago, and the biggest poker room in town (with the best security) was raided and closed by the police, forcing players to smaller venues.

There are couple of reasons underground games are unsafe. First, because they are subject to police raid and closure, the owners don't have incentive to spend a bunch on security.

Second, because the owners are reluctant to report a hijacking to police (none of the Houston robberies have been reported), then hijackers are encouraged to keep on keeping on.

People are going to play poker. Their safety needs more consideration in the legalization debate.