According to multiple reports, including people on the scene, The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas was raided by law enforcement on Tuesday morning. The popular poker room is co-owned by Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen, none of whom have yet to make a public statement about the incident.
Few specifics are known at this point, except that the raid was conducted by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission (TABC), along with state police.
Multiple poker players who were at The Lodge Card Club at the time of the interruption posted on Reddit that TABC agents did not let anyone cash out their chips. Instead, they told people to take their chips home, perhaps a positive sign that means that they will be able to return to either play with them at a later date or cash them out.
some players protested, asking to see a warrant
Players were not permitted to leave without showing law enforcement their identification. Some players protested, asking to see a warrant, but to no avail.
Tournament players, naturally, were not permitted to take their chips home, as they have no cash value and being allowed to remove tournament chips from the premises would be a game integrity concern, assuming the poker room reopens. One Reddit poster said a staff member told them they would be “refunded with an entry later.”
Some have opined that since it is a TABC investigation, that the raid had nothing to do with the legality of the room itself, but instead the business’ liquor license or alcohol sales, but of course, that is all just speculation. Poker clubs exist in a legal gray area in Texas, but have generally been accepted by communities and law enforcement.
