Cops Target Illegal Poker Operations

Cops Target Illegal Poker Operations by Brian McNeill for The Connection Newspapers The first rule of the Reston Card Club was that the "cards speak." The seventh rule warned players not to "splash the pot." The 10th rule was simply "have fun!" Until last month, the list of rules hung on the wall of a Reston apartment that Northern Virginia card sharks frequently visited for illegal games of high stakes poker, according to police. Fairfax County detectives raided the Reston game on Thursday, Feb. 10, arresting 13 suspects and seizing roughly $6,000. The game's alleged operators, Paul T. Cha, 42, and Ginger L. Everett, 42, were both charged with conducting an illegal gambling operation and possession of gambling paraphernalia. The game's 11 players were all charged with illegal gambling, a crime that carries a maximum $500 fine. Last August, Fairfax County detectives arrested 24 individuals and confiscated around $20,000 when they busted another major poker game in Centreville. Bradley L. McLaughlin, 28, Jeanna Anderson, 26, and Dexter L. McLaughlin, 52, were all charged with felonies for allegedly running the game. The two incidents represent a significant increase in the number of illegal Texas Hold 'Em games being held in Fairfax County, police said. "We feel that there are many, many operators in this county where individuals are making more than $150,000 a year," said Capt. David Vice, commander of the Fairfax County Police Department's organized crime and narcotics division. "Unfortunately, when someone is making that much money, someone is losing that much money at the same time." Vice and his detectives displayed last Wednesday some of the evidence found at the two busts, including professional card tables, cases of poker chips, decks of cards and more. Vice said his department is hearing an increasing number of complaints about Fairfax County residents gambling away their family savings at illegal poker games. "We have received numerous calls and e-mails from family members who have lost their savings, their child's college tuition money, you name it," he said. "They may start out thinking they're just having fun with some recreational gambling, but they can get in over their head pretty quickly." THE CURRENT POKER craze is tied to the popularity of televised poker tournaments on ESPN, Bravo and the Travel Channel. Amateur games have been set up over the last year among friends and at restaurants like T T Reynolds in Fairfax. But the game's popularity has fueled the rise of the underground illegal games as well. "They've jumped in on the popularity of Texas Hold 'Em," Vice said. "Like everything else, there's always someone waiting to take advantage of something good and turn it into something illegal." Poker games become illegal when the game's operator takes a cut — usually 10 percent — of the game's pot. Typical illegal poker operations generate $10,000 in profit each month, Vice said. Jim Cox, a Fairfax County detective who investigates illegal gambling, said they are finding a wide array of people participating in the underground poker games. The players are young and old, rich and poor, men and women, he said. "It's everybody," Cox said. Gambling addicts seek out illegal high-stakes games because of the drama and the feeling that they can win or lose everything in a deal of the cards, said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling in Washington, D.C. "The excitement of having a bet on the table is really what they crave," Whyte said. "It becomes not as much about the money, but just about staying in the action. It's living on the edge and taking risks." LIKE ALCOHOLISM, only a small percentage of people become addicted to gambling. Whyte estimates 2 million individuals — around 1 percent of the U.S. population — are problem gamblers. Approximately 80 percent of adults have gambled at least once in their lifetime. Dick, a Lorton resident who declined to give his last name, is a recovering gambling addict who has refrained from gambling for the past 22 years. He said gambling addicts often get hooked early on and keep playing because they believe they will always win back their losses. In retrospect, Dick said he realizes he was driven by the excitement far more than the money. "Sitting at a slot machine or at a card table is a better high than drugs or alcohol," he said. "It's the most exciting, challenging experience out there." One member of Dick's Gamblers Anonymous group in Springfield has lost more than $330,000 from his habit. Like many other gambling addicts, Dick resorted to white collar crime to stay in the game. He was caught attempting to embezzle an undisclosed amount of cash. An estimated 70 percent of gambling addicts in treatment have committed either fraud or embezzlement, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. "When you lose, you go back. When you win, you go back," Dick said. "Money is the drug of the gambling addiction." MOST POKER aficionados stay away from illegal games and know when to quit. Mark Rosenberg, a 22-year-old McLean resident, learned to play Texas Hold 'Em and Five Card Stud while he was stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Army. He plays often with his friends and traveled two weeks ago to play in Atlantic City. "It's just something different to bring you and your friends together," he said. "You learn how to read people. And the chance of making a little extra money doesn't hurt." Herndon resident Ben Sterling, 22, plays in several low-stakes weekly games with his friends. He said he has been playing for years, but became serious about the game when he was "suckered in" by the televised poker tournaments. "I'm mostly attracted to the game for the thought process and the analysis of how people act or want you to think how they act," he said. Del. Chap Petersen (D-37) introduced a bill during the General Assembly session that would have allowed private clubs to hold regular poker tournaments. Six months ago, a game held by the Fraternal Order of Police in Virginia Beach was ruled illegal. Petersen's bill aimed to allow similar private organizations to hold card games, just like private residents can. "Look, I don't gamble. But I don't think it's a proper allocation of state resources to be banging down doors to arrest these people," he said. "On the other hand, we don't want to have organized crime coming into Virginia."