Poker Writer
The Lodge Card Club will remain closed indefinitely after staff were laid off permanently, as a months-long legal battle lies ahead for the popular Texas cardroom. The effects of the surprise Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission raid on March 10 have reverberated for two weeks, with few answers coming.
There are still no official charges against The Lodge, and authorities have not made any arrests. But the process looks to be a long road ahead before there is any hope of a reopening.
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Owner Informs Staff of the Bad News
On Tuesday, Jason Levin, one of the three majority owners sent an email to all Lodge employees which was posted to Reddit:
It’s so painful to say that The Lodge Round Rock location will need to shut its doors for the foreseeable future. While no charges have been brought, and we maintain that the club has always operated with the utmost integrity and within the laws of Texas, the 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. For this reason, we cannot re-open.
He went on to add that because authorities have given no indication as to how long the investigation will take, they had to make the incredibly difficult decision to let go of the entire staff.
One of the other owners, Doug Polk, has not yet commented on the newest development after his initial statement when the news first broke.
County DA Bringing the Heat Against The Lodge
The Lodge’s sister property in San Antonio continues to run. That operation is in Bexar County. TCH Austin, located in Travis County, continues to operate despite concerns that it may be the next target. Meanwhile, The Lodge is in Williamson County, and that is where the crux of the issue appears to lie.
The Williamson County District Attorney’s office, Shawn Dick, believes the card club does not operate in compliance with Texas law. This belief appears to stem from a letter from current Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, dated to 2005, when he was the Texas attorney general. The letter is a legal opinion and not actual law.
Here’s a look at the letter, procured by Todd Witteles of PokerFraudAlert. It provides the basis for the TABC’s raid on The Lodge. It states that “a holder of an on-premises alcoholic beverage permit may not host a poker tournament in which participants risk money or any other thing of value for the opportunity to win a prize.”
Why Now, After Eight Years?
This letter, which has existed for 21 years, raises the question of why the TABC granted The Lodge a liquor license in the first place. It also makes the timing of the raid odd, considering The Lodge has been in operation since 2018, and DA Dick has been in office since 2017.
As one user on X put it:
So the Williamson county DA and law enforcement allowed them to operate ‘illegally’ right off of 35, extremely high profile, for almost 10 years without saying anything?
Pleas Made to the DA
“Crypto Max” on X shared his impassioned email to the DA. He mentions that his girlfriend abruptly lost her job working on The Lodge stream, a job that she loved. One of the key parts of his email emphasizes that The Lodge was an above-board community of real people:
The Lodge was not some shadowy backroom operation preying on the public. It was a visible, organized, community-centered place that employed a huge number of local people and gave thousands of Texans a safer and more structured place to play than the alternative. Shutting it down does not suddenly make poker disappear. It just pushes people out of a monitored environment and back into riskier, less accountable ones, while the people who did nothing wrong lose their jobs overnight.
Image credit: Soban/Wikimedia Commons (license)
