Seventeen months after authorities raided the Watauga Social Lounge Poker Club during a $100,000 guaranteed tournament, the card room’s owner, Joe Vongkaysone, has reached a plea deal and will avoid jail time. But he’s out a significant amount of money from the legal fight.
Vongkaysone, who issued a statement to PokerNews following the plea deal, was charged in October 2022 with one count of engaging in organized crime and a separate count for gambling promotion. Multiple players at the Dallas, Texas area poker club were fined, and numerous staff members were arrested.
Texas Poker Room Owner Takes a Plea Deal
During the raid, which took place at 7:55 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2022, authorities seized money, receipts, gambling apparatuses, and the $132,840 prize pool from the $420 buy-in Main Event of the poker room’s Fall Classic. In April 2023, charges and fines were dismissed for players involved, but there still wasn’t an outcome for the owner and various staff members.
The club’s owner said that after having spent $195,000 in legal fees for himself and eight staff members, he “ran out of money to keep fighting.” With that, he chose to give up the fight, take a plea deal on Feb. 29, and to accept that the state will keep the money. In return, the charges have been dropped, and he is no longer at risk of being sent to jail.
“I’m relieved to finally close this lengthy chapter of my life, having attended court sessions monthly from October 2022 to February 2024. Now, I have the opportunity to progress. Making the tough choice to accept an inequitable plea bargain, surrender the forfeitures, and bear inflated attorney fees was far from easy.
However, with the official dismissal of the cases, I can now look to the future. My heart goes out to every individual who got entangled in this unfair situation – the players, employees, and all my investors. Truly, it’s a regrettable predicament for everyone involved,” Vongkaysone said in a statement.
The poker room, shut down for illegal gambling, never reopened following the raid. Vongkaysone is forced to forfeit $170,030 plus interest, according to court documents, which includes $102,018 to the state of Texas and $68,012 to Tarrant County.
Texas Poker (and Gambling) Laws are Strict
Watauga Social Lounge Poker Club, a nine-table card room, is one of many poker rooms in Texas that has faced legal action. The Longhorn State isn’t much for freedom when it comes to gambling and marijuana. In Texas, gambling is illegal and poker rooms cannot operate using a traditional model.
Instead, the card rooms across the state use a loophole to operate as a membership-based club instead of charging rake, which is unquestionably illegal in the state. According to Texas Penal Code 47.04 (Keeping a Gambling Place), the games must take place in a private place, no person can receive any economic benefit other than winnings, and the risks of losing must be the same for all participants in the game.
Many interpret that as if no rake is charged, the house doesn’t receive any “economic benefit” from the games, thus making that business model legal. But when it came to Watauga, authorities disputed the club was operating in such a manner.
The raid took place on Day 2 of the $100,000 guaranteed Main Event with 53 players remaining, none of whom were paid out due to the legal action that transpired. Players at the facility during the raid were reportedly each fined $360 and asked to answer a series of questions pertaining to their understanding of the tournament buy-in structure and how long they had been a member of the club.
“I thought it was security actually because we asked for two security to come in, but I guess they didn’t realize we started the tournament at 1 p.m. as they normally come in at 6 p.m. but when they told me to raise my hands I realized it wasn’t security,” an anonymous staff member told PokerNews in October 2022.
