Victory for Doug Polk: Texas Clears The Lodge Poker Room to Reopen

• Grand jury rejects charges, clearing The Lodge Card Club owners
• Doug Polk says club will reopen after assets returned
• Case highlights legal gray area around Texas poker clubs

Texas’s biggest cardroom, The Lodge Card Club, is back from the dead. Poker pro and co-owner of the Austin-area card room, Doug Polk, announced on social media Tuesday that a Williamson County grand jury had rejected proposed charges of illegal gambling against him, his partners, and The Lodge.

Polk said the club’s seized money and equipment would be returned and that management hoped to reopen “within a few weeks.”

“Justice has prevailed,” he added. “The damage to our staff and members has been tremendous, and it is now time to rebuild. We will be putting together a kickoff event in the near future.”

It’s a remarkable reversal for a business that only a month ago appeared to have shut for good when employees were laid off via email.

Co-owner Jason Levin told workers the club would have to close “for the foreseeable future” because “Williamson County District Attorney’s Office has made clear to our attorneys that they believe The Lodge’s current business model does not comply with Texas law.”

Club Raided

The club was raided on March 10 by agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s Financial Crimes Unit (TABC).

The agency said the search-and-seizure warrant was connected to an investigation into suspected illegal gambling and money laundering. Players inside the club said they were told to leave with their chips rather than cash them out.

The filing suggested prosecutors were no longer pursuing money-laundering allegations against the Lodge and were focused instead on whether its poker operation violated Texas gambling law.

Poker rooms in the state generally operate as private membership clubs. They do not take a rake from pots but instead charge players membership or seat fees.

They argue this model fits within Texas Penal Code defenses for private gambling, which require that play occurs in a private place, that no one receives an economic benefit beyond personal winnings, and that all players face the same risks apart from skill or luck.

‘Witch Hunt’ Allegation

TABC’s search and seizure warrant argued the clubs’ owners were gaining an economic benefit by “charging membership fees and seat fees for individuals to gamble” and by “selling food, beverages, alcoholic drinks, merchandise, streaming poker play, and hosting poker tournaments.”

That’s no different than clubs elsewhere in Texas, which have not been targeted by authorities – at least, not yet.

The legality of the private poker-club model in the state may ultimately be decided by the Texas Supreme Court.