EVERYWHERE BUT TEXAS HOLD’EM?

I read this article from the Galveston County Daily News detailing how the poker police continue to protect us from ourselves. Some of the good people of Texas City, located close to dGalveston Texas, were playing in a poker tournament at Shenanigan’s Nightclub when local police crashed the party and issued class C misdemeanor citations to all of the seventy-eight entrants. The club’s owner, Frank Skaggs, and the club’s manager were arrested and charged with running a gambling place. Those receiving a citation can pay the $183 fine and forget it or they may choose to go to court instead; so today, seventy-eight people were scheduled to appear in Texas City’s municipal court to answer the charges. Owner, Frank Skaggs has maintained that he cleared dthe event with local police and they were OK with the tournament since the bar did not receive a cut of the prize pool. Of course, the police now say the conversation never took place. I am assuming that it is OK to hold a poker tournament in Texas if you do not profit from the event and clear it with the poker police first; but you had better get it in writing. Now, let me do some simple arithmetic: 78 entries, each with a $183 citations would be equal to $14,274. That’s a lot of donuts.

I found this story of particular interest since I’m a former resident of Galveston County. I lived there in the eighties when I was an engineer for the Space Shuttle program at Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, a suberb of Houston. During my time with NASA I spent most of my off days in Galveston. The city offers some great beaches, warm Gulf water, the best shrimp I can remember and a colorful, rich history. I would wander around the historic old Strand district of the city and shoot photos while visiting with many of the retired, long term locals. I was especially interested in some of restaurants located in refurbished older building. Some of them had what appeared to be a cashier cage very much like Vegas casinos with windows and security bars. One of these restaurants, the Balinese Room, was built on a peer jutting out into the Gulf where you have to walk a considerable distance out to the building, then all the way around the building to get to the entrance. One of the older local natives told me the building originally housed one of the Sam Maceo family owned casinos. The long walk was by design. By the time the police, at full gallup, could get into the building the gaming tables had been miraculously transformed into a restaurant, complete with patrons enjoying food and drink. This same elder historian also told me that when the Maceo family ran the island in the 1920’s and 30’ds the roads didn’t have any potholes, a black person could find respectable employment and crime was practically non-existent.

The Galveston County police have been chasing the evil gamblers since the twenties and apparently the practice continues through today. The only group realizing a profit from that recent Texas City poker tournament was the Texas City police. I find it ironic that the most popular poker game is named Texas Hold’em. Go to Texas, play Texas Hold’em and you’ll find yourself on the short end of a Texas Raid’em. I wonder if the cops refer to the jail as the Texas Hold’em?