Barely Noticed by Cops, Non-Tribal Poker Rooms Thrive in Phoenix

Let's free native American's from BIA enslavement. It's been nearly 200 years for the process of assimilation that was to take a generation or two, and the longer we wait to abolish this aberration of the longest standing US government bureaucracy, the more deeply entrenched we become in continuing the insanity. Nobody sees the native Americans. They are a forgotten race, nobody cares, they are still considered livestock by the federal government, who recently admitted to bilking their trust for $5 Billion in two settlements with dozens more pending. Dismantle the BIA and hand over the trust responsibilities to an Indian consortium. Stop feeding the casinos that further the ethnic cleansing agenda of the BIA internment program known as Indian Reservations. Doesn't matter if Indians want to be freed from the federal teat or not, they are not free people, and cannot be until given fee simple title to their lands, and they are allowed to take over the vast BIA trust.

Glitch

Glitch

Good, leave them indians alone man!

www.Anon-Big.tk

Actually who cares,We should have open gambling here in ARIZONA  all the time and make it legal.The indian tribes are raping us right and left.A drink at a casino costs more than a drink in a fairly nice BAR.Hell in the 50 and 60"s all the big hotels in SCOTTSDALE were ser up to have gambling,but the MORMON church put the end of that over the yrs.

Im sure cops have better things to do, like deal with some real crime?

www.GetzAnon.tk

If I were Archuletta, I would sue for slander for saying "You're illegal" in front of a New Times reporter, and libel for seeing it in print. What better way to prove your operation is not illegal and on the up and up? Of course, if I were Schnaubelt, I probably wouldn't even need legal council to defend against such a claim.

Poker clubs have a few options at their disposal: Hire a lobbyist to change the laws, petition legislators and political leaders, seek a declaratory judgment in court, or go off-the-radar. I used to grind these clubs, mainly Chip 'N Chair and The Nuts, but stopped going after I was detained and released in The Nuts raid for two hours. That was CRAZY! AK-47s in my face and zip tied. I will not go through that again, EVER!

I still support activists like Lee and Schnaubelt, but don't see anything changing any time soon. More likely, these off-rez poker clubs will be shut down one by one or in a major sweep. It's unfortunate, as I totally understand Schnaubelt and Lee's arguments against the BIA and tribal exclusivity. I just don't know if they have the voice to get it done. We'll see what happens with Lee's appeal on his First Amendment claim. Good luck.

Well, I must give Ray Stern’s article on the Arizona Poker War higher marks than the puff piece worked up by Mr. Rubin. However, once again you declined to take any notice of the real issues underlying my true motives. The fact is that I personally hand carried a Notice to local and state municipal enforcement authorities PRIOR TO OPENING any facility in the State. 

No other card room in the state can make that claim. In Tombstone I even addressed and received the backing of the City Council at a formal meeting. In May of 2005 I made sure that Attorney General Terry Goddard, along with the Cochise County Attorney received written notice of our plans to open a card room for the ACL membership. It was hand carried and delivered in person. 

As I informed Ray in our conversation with John a few weeks back; it is all over my website: I am fighting for that Petition. Oddly, you didn't even notice one had been lodged.  

Also, it is incorrect that the Department of Gaming shut me down. These coward never even suggested to me or my lawyer that I was unlawful at anytime when I was still conducting business. I notice that you also failed to notice that this agency is paid exclusively from the fruit of the BIA gambling cabal. Their bogus complaint of a lack of resources is odd? Again, not note taken that the DoG police receive no tax money. Which they boast about on their website. 

The don't mention the fact that the DoG controls the kickback fund comprise of the BIA cartels booty from the immoral rigged slots they operate. Czar Brnovich and the DoG control a ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR annul slush fund euphemistically called the Arizona Benefit fund. This fund is not paid in lieu of taxes. It is simply a paltry single digit kickback for Arizona leadership allowing their banished crime cartel to victimize the state with impunity.

It is absurd to here Czar Brnovich talk as if they are poorly funded by the State and are understaffed. The DoG agents control the entire Arizona Benefit Fund, which as far as decent people are concerned is merely laundering the illicit fruit of an amoral crime cartel

To quote Mr. Stern’s research: “Since 2004, the department's website (the DoG) shows, the state has received more than $800 million as its percentage of the take — which runs from between 1 percent and 8 percent of all casinos' gross earnings.” Your article failed to note that the BIA gambling cartel does the books and no one from Arizona can audit those books. Nor, does the DoG have enforcement authority over their paymasters. 

I am certain that I informed Ray that I never personally operated a poker room. I organized poker players association with the hope that it would evolve into a PGA type organization. I certainly did not face down a long prison term to defend poker. 

I also strongly resent the implication that I was forced to close by the DoG or the Court. I was never approached by the DoG until long after I had ceased to operate. I had been out of business a year before the indictment. My indictment only came months after loss of revenue and low membership forced my associates to close our last facility. True the bogus badges from the BIA gambling cartel police intimidated members into disassociating from our clubs forced the closure.

As to my earnings the DoG introduced all of the money I ever received and it was less than two thousand dollars a year. I never collect any of the up front fees that were originally sought. In fact, I lost money every year I operate my players association. Some of my associates, Poker Nation for one, never paid a penny to me or the ICGPA. I actually fronted her money to operate, and even that was never repaid.\

I also notice you did not mention the courts gracious comments toward me at my sentencing. The Judge was a good deal more than just “lenient”. However, how would the press corps know, they were not in attendance. You act as if I am a weirdo simply because I have never heard or seen a case where a judge is facing felony conspiracy and racketeering charges and the media doesn't find it newsworthy. Sure, I a nutcase.

Thanks for mentioning my websites. The icgpa.org has been up for several years.

Here is what I do know; the issue I am fighting to guard is the right to file a 1st Amendment petition to demand a redress of grievances, and not be indicted for doing so. That is the main issue on appeal. The right of the State to interfere with the free will of professional poker players is a sub issue as far as I am concerned.

As to the BIA crime cabal and the racist reservation system taxpayers are blindly funding I would ask folks to answer this riddle:

How can a crime cartel exist anywhere in the geographical boundaries of the state, unless public officers disobeyed their oath given to the people to uphold and enforce all the laws of the State; including the anti gambling statutes? Then how can the BIA bureaucrats, who have stipulated to pilfering billions of dollars from the taxpayer ward they are charged to protect, be allowed to open a felony business enterprise? Can they also open a drug cartel within State tribal lands?

The answers can be found at www.convictatlarge.me 

Judge Harold Lee Convict at Large

Good article Mr. Stern. Presented fairly and without bias, complete with expletives. I enjoyed the read.

"By destroying off-res poker, Schnaubelt believes, he can save poker" is a bit of a stretch though. By opening conversations with Phoenix, Glendale and Peoria (Tempe and Litchfield Park are on the list of next cities) to introduce them to their constitutional rights to franchise, regardless of a civil agreement the Arizona Executive signed ceding "jackpot poker" to the tribes", I hope to provide a way for currently illegal cardrooms to legitimize operation.Short of operating as a cooperative, where every member can freely be an equal owner with equal vote, open books and complete transparency, I would never step foot in another operation outside of Indian Country. If we can be expected to play poker responsibly and socially as adults in our homes, then it stands to reason that we can play poker responsibly and socially as adults in any facility we jointly and collectively own and control.

My goal, all along, has been to create a place where we, the people, the citizens of Arizona, (read: ME) can play poker without having to travel to an untaxed other nation-state where the rake the pots with impunity. I want a room I know is safe, that I have some say in how it’s run and what it does. Until that happens, or until The Tilted Jack Social Poker Club Cooperative opens another facility (undoubtedly with the blessing and/or knowledge of the local municipality), I'm sticking with gin rummy, bridge, canasta and euchre as my card game of choice.

The article talks about Lee's appeal, but not what is being appealed, specifically, his first amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, which he did in 2005 and many times since.

• Brnovich says the ADoG is hurting for money? That's hard to believe when he administers a $100MM a year slush fund.

• If you call the National Indian Gaming Commission office office in Phoenix, they will tell you that they, and not the ADoG, are responsible for oversight and enforcement of tribal poker rooms, which they still consider Class II gaming. The bigger story here is what, and how much, of the activity in tribal poker rooms is actually monitored, and just how much money the State is getting from the poker activity. I'm willing to bet it's less than $10M a year for all casinos in the State. And that's just bad fiscal responsibility... granting a virtual monopoly on the sport by effectively "zoning" it to tribal casinos, where the State has no audit power, and I would contend, no way of telling us just how much money comes into the Arizona benefits fund from poker. Is the Class III Net Win coming from ALL poker activities, or is it just from Jackpot Poker tables, or is it just from the amount of money collected from the Jackpot (Class III) rake? Because keep in mind, for 20 years, 1982 (Fort McDowell opened) till 2002, tribes and the NIGC contend that poker in Arizona was a Class II game, and it still is today. Class II games, like Bingo, pull tabs, and poker, are not subject to state laws and may not therefore be contributing at all to the state in any way. Who really knows? Mr. Brnovich wouldn't tell me, even if he could.

• 17 different MoUs were signed by the governor of our state. What the article does not mention is that in 2002, just ten years ago, the tribal poker rooms were in the same boat as all the off-res cardrooms are today, and using the same arguments cardroom operators are using today to defend their constitutional rights to freedom and liberty. The problem most current cardrooms have is they infringe on the jackpot poker with promotional awards, which constitute Class III gaming on reservations and is definitely luck-based, non-calculated risk type gambling. Aces cracked? Bad beat jackpot? Your game is not only illegal, but infringing on the tribal exclusivity and the poison pill clause of their gaming compact.

• How is that the governor, after twenty years of claiming tribal poker rooms were illegal, was able to sign 17 poker MoUs without that being considered conspiracy? State leaders claiming that “Congress made them do it” doesn't hold up under scrutiny, as that element of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 was held to be an unconstitutional overstepping of Congressional bounds. See Seminole vs. State of Florida regarding State's rights. Of course, Prop 202, twenty years after we've already had tribal gaming in our state, is just more lipstick on the same pig. Could citizens rightfully pass an initiative to legalize murder, rape or illicit drugs? How did we get around State laws without committing conspiracy? Someone had to sit down with someone else after 20 years and say "OK, look, here's how we can get around the state's laws regarding Class II non-banked card games like poker for the tribal gaming interests, and here’s is how the state can make money at it too."

All in all though, the best story concerning Valley cardroom industry to come out of any paper since the standalone storefront cardroom industry started around 2006. Thanks Ray, and keep up the good work. I'll let you know if my wife changes her mind and allows me to go all 13-3884 on some of these cardrooms. Clearly if they know they are operating illegally, they are unethical, and it only stands to reason that other sorts of illegal activities are going on, from defrauding DirecTV with the NFL Sunday ticket for public viewing, to utilizing shills and staked players or shady card mechanics as dealers. 

There's no telling what type of collusion can be going on in these unregulated cardrooms, but I guarantee that they are due for an Arpaio-style media-attention grabbing raid sometime soon, because they aren't going away, they aren't becoming less popular, and one prosecution per year doesn't cut it.

If a gray market Valley poker industry can support 16 to 19 illegal cardrooms today, think about how many it could support if properly legitimized by a municipality, county, or state. Bingo, another Class II game, is played off-res and on. Why not non-promotional award non-banked card games like poker? Even Arpaio calls poker “an amusement”. Even at the state level, such traditional poker doesn’t infringe on tribal “jackpot poker” exclusivity, and if the tribes have retained their right to conduct such games as non-banked poker, then too so must we all, even if that right can only be exercised through one of Arizona’s 92 cities and towns. Why? Because the Supreme Court has already ruled that the state-tribal Class III compacts are NOT a violation of citizens rights to equal protection of the law because it is a government-to-government negotiation and relationship, not a government-to-race or –class of citizen relationship.

Lastly, people other than myself have tried to organize all the cardrooms so that we can approach the government with a pie ready to be sliced up. With cardroom operators lining their pockets with illicit proceeds in closed-management private ownership operations, that's never going to happen, and as the ADoG told me, if cardrooms were regulated, half of 'em would close down immediately because the owners have felony records and would not pass certification requirements.