NY Crackdown raises the ante for underground poker clubs
The raids on May 26, dubbed ‘’Black Thursday” by one poker website, and two more last month have sent a chill through the city’s clandestine poker scene.
Several members-only card clubs closed their doors after 13 arrests on Oct. 16 at the Broadway Club in the Flatiron District. On Oct. 28, a second-floor parlor on the Upper East Side, the EV Club, was the site of more vice squad arrests.
Regulars at the Manhattan clubs, including such professional card players as Phil Hellmuth, have questioned the crackdown while predicting that the popularity of poker, and its potential for profit, make it unlikely that the chips will be down for long.
‘’People just want to play poker, and because there are no legal clubs in the city, they turn to underground clubs,” said Hellmuth, a former World Series of Poker champion.