A lobbying group seeking to protect Texas's dozens of "social poker" clubs' right to operate by clarifying the legal codes governing the clubs' existence has launched its initial publicity campaign in an effort to influence Texas lawmakers on the topic. Texans for Texas Hold'em describes itself as a "an organization comprised of dedicated poker players and owners of social poker clubs who are committed to promoting and protecting the thriving poker community in Texas."
Texans for Texas Hold'em was created in late 2022 and already claims several of the state's largest social poker clubs as supporting entities. Those clubs include The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Champions Poker Club in Dallas, the SA Card Club in San Antonio, and the four Texas Card House venues (Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Rio Grande Valley).
The lobbying group's multi-pronged call for support comes as Texas's state legislature prepares to consider one or more bills on the legality of such clubs. Roughly 75 social poker clubs operate in Texas at the present time. One such bill recently introduced by State Rep. Gene Wu would effectively ban social poker clubs as they currently exist, which is among the developments that spurred Texans for Texas Hold'em's creation.
Doug Polk fronts group's online presence
Perhaps the most famous of Texas's social poker club owners, Doug Polk, is a prominent part of Texans for Texas Hold'em's publicity push. A nine-minute video featuring Polk, a co-owner of The Lodge, introduces the pending legislative battle over poker in Texas to the site's visitors.
All parties with interest in the legality of live poker in Texas agree that the state's current laws are vague and subject to varying interpretations. Texans for Texas Hold'em's intent is to ensure that any changes to the existing law redefine the situation in a way that protects the clubs' rights to operate, unlike the current version of Wu's bill. "[T]his Gene Wu bill kills poker in its current form if that passed through without being changed," Polk states, midway through the video.
New and adverse legislation is one of three ways in which Texans for Texas Poker's organizers believe the current social-club market could be rendered illegal. The three possibilities include:
- The attorney general (of Texas) issues an opinion about "private place" and "economic benefit" that makes the social-club business model illegal;
- Dallas (or any other) Texas poker case makes it to the Texas Supreme Court, where a ruling on poker's legality would become the law of the state;
- New laws are passed that specifically make the social-club model for live poker in Texas illegal.
Lobbying for favorable changes to statute's wording
Texans for Texas Hold'em seeks to clarify two key phrases in the statute governing social clubs' legality, specifically seeking clarification on how "private place" and "economic benefit" are to be interpreted. Besides the call for public support, the group will have to find supportive legislators as it works to shape any changes or clarification to existing law.
Texas Penal Code § 47.02, Section B deals with the conditions under which social gambling is permitted and reads as follows:
(B) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:
(1) the actor engaged in gambling in a private place;
(2) no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings; and
(3) except for the advantage of skill or luck, the risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all participants.
Wu's recently submitted bill, HB 732, is viewed as adverse to social poker clubs in its current form because it changes the single word "place" to "residence" in subsection (1) of the above code. But such a change would also render illegal the types of private poker games that the existing law was designed to protect -- deeply bankrolled games within walled-off country clubs and other private venues -- and is thus unlikely to receive widespread support.
Anti-poker interpretations by local and county governments may represent the larger threat, as can be seen in the current hodgepodge of enforcement actions across Texas. In Dallas, the most conservative of the Lone Star State's largest metropolitan cities, local officials continue efforts to close down clubs that were previously granted licenses to operate.
Dallas city council proposal another non-favored alternative
Though it's not addressed within Polk's video statement, a recent development has opened up another avenue that is unlikely to receive enthusiastic support from the city's poker clubs, nor would it be welcomed if duplicated elsewhere.
Amid an ongoing civic battle to close the Dallas poker clubs, the Dallas City Council, in its January 25 gathering, chose to explore the possibility of an alternative form of licensing which would allow poker clubs to continue operating. The proposed workaround would include proximity restrictions to prevent poker clubs being near schools or within or adjacent to certain types of residential neighborhoods.
The larger problem, though, is that the proposed changes would also require these specially-licensed venues to derive a significant (though as yet undefined) portion of their revenue from activities other than poker, which would still render social-poker clubs in Dallas illegal as they exist today. None of the existing Dallas clubs appear to have come out in favor of such alternative licensing, instead continuing to rest their chances on continuing court cases.
Clubs in other Texas cities could be indirectly affected as well, should such local changes be hailed as a favored way to license poker clubs throughout the state. All these developments illustrate why the state's social-poker industry has created Texans for Texas Hold'em, as part of the situation in Texas involves defining the terms of the political debate. Leaving those definitions in the hands of those opposed to such poker clubs increases the likelihood of a negative legislative outcome.
Featured image source: Texans for Texas Hold'em
