Poker Superstars
Phil Hellmuth
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Another Atlanta Poker Bust |
Word spread like wildfire among Atlanta poker players this week when another bust over the past weekend at a popular Atlanta game room ended up in the arrest of more than 20 players, as well as hosting an illegal ring game felony charges for those in charge.
Atlanta got a big share of poker bust news earlier this summer when two huge games were both busted, once of which included a well known political figure. That game had been a huge $10,000 buy in at a local suburban house where they'd even gone so far as to hire waitresses for liquor. The police arrested 20 players and impounded twenty cars all in a wild story that would go down in Atlanta as a warning to players: they will bust you. Of course, this game seemed particuarly suspect considering the enormous buy in and the very conspicuous parking arrangements. These guys seemed to almost be begging for a bust.
Now last week's news shows another big slip up in the way of card room management. A game just outside the heart of downtown Atlanta was raided, though they weren't only running poker. They had pool tables people could bet on, dice games, and slot machines running throughout the room. The most ridiculous point in the whole matter was that the building's security was almost nonexistant: all this money going on inside and they didn't even have someone watching the parking garage, a camera, or anything of such a nature.
I think running a game of this magnitude in a city that's shown willing to bust is just pushing the envelope way too much. Yes, it's not fair that we live in a city with a double standard where you can buy lottery tickets or play Kino at the bar, but you can't play cards for money. Stepping out with something as huge as slots in a lockdown of this nature seems to me to be asking for trouble, especially if you don't have the foresight to hire surveillance or security. I'm not sure about how much runs through the heads of people who host games but for your players' security alone you should have the foresight to see these kind of things coming and take care of them ahead of time.
To the politicians behind the double standard, I hope you realize that these kind of policies are not serving the people. If anything, they are making things MORE dangerous. Players are going to play. By forcing them to go to underground facilities, you are allowing all sorts of trouble to occur. The threat of robbery is everpresent on the mind of any cash game player. Hold ups happen all the time. By allowing some moderately staked games run by the state you're not only making a safer community, but you're also allowing potential billions in tax dollars come in so we can put these tendencies to use. |
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