After allowing three poker club businesses to operate in Dallas, city officials are trying to ban them claiming they misunderstood Texas' laws prohibiting...
, Joe Vongkaysone said, he thought the city would turn into a major hub for the game and wanted in.
“Poker was legal in Dallas until all of a sudden, it wasn’t,” said Vongkaysone, who has since opened another poker club in Watauga in Tarrant County. “It didn’t make sense because they were welcoming clubs with open arms and then were shutting the door in our face.”after Far North Dallas residents last year opposed the establishment of one near their neighborhood.
, which hears challenges of development code decisions, since October have agreed with and rejected the latest city stance that poker club businesses are illegal. The citizen board has 15 members, but panels of five members hear appeals. Poker clubs are also illegal because there are economic benefits beyond the money players earn from winning, according to Dallas Senior Assistant City Attorney Gary Powell.
Powell also disagreed that the games occur in private places, arguing that the businesses are in commercial areas anyone can get to and barriers for adults to play are low. An application for Champions Club in Far North Dallas was denied in August, a month after owners applied. Dallas Poker Club’s application was denied in September. Their site is about 5 miles south of Texas Card House.Several of the clubs have other locations in Austin and Houston.
Both groups and the owners of 52 Social have since sued the city in an attempt to get a federal court judge to order Dallas to allow them to operate in the buildings they’ve already leased.
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