Taxpayer Money Down the Drain as Texas Poker Room Wins Major Legal Battle

The town of Dallas spent a whole lot of 1000’s of taxpayers’ cash preventing in courtroom in opposition to Texas Card Home, solely to lose a three-year battle within the Texas Supreme Court docket on Friday.

Andrew Espinoza, Dallas’ chief constructing official, obtained over $370,000 from the town council simply in 2023 for authorized bills wanted to sue TCH and the town’s Board of Adjustment (BOA) over a Certificates of Occupancy challenge, in accordance with the Dallas Observer.

All that cash spent — and there was extra of it in 2024 and 2025 — went to a shedding trigger.

Texas Court docket Sides with Poker Room

The Texas poker group, not simply TCH, scored a victory on Friday when the Texas Supreme Court docket denied Espinoza’s attraction. Ryan Crow, proprietor of Texas Card Home, stated he anticipates this being the top of the three-year authorized battle in opposition to his Dallas poker membership.

Crow obtained approval to function a poker membership from the town throughout a metropolis council listening to in 2020. But it surely was revoked in October 2022. The cardboard room filed an attraction with the BOA and gained.

Espinoza and his group then efficiently sued TCH and the BOA for reinstating the allow to function. Crow’s attorneys continued the battle, submitting an attraction and profitable once more in August 2024. Espinoza, nevertheless, continued to battle again, and took the case up with the Texas Supreme Court docket, the place he misplaced in what seems to be the top of the highway for this case.

The constructing official argued TCH had been initially “issued in error” a Certificates of Occupancy. Texas Card Home’s attorneys argued in courtroom that the C.O. was not issued in error, and the revocation was on account of “lobbying or a change of thoughts a couple of fairly disputable software of regulation.”

It was initially decided by the courtroom that TCH had violated the state’s penal code prohibition on playing and holding a playing place. Texas has strict anti-gambling legal guidelines. However there’s a loophole in Texas Penal Code 47.04 that enables for poker rooms to function as long as they achieve this with out gathering rake.

The cardboard rooms within the Longhorn State, not less than those which are taking part in by the principles, cost membership and seat charges as a substitute of rake. However some lawmakers and metropolis officers throughout the state interpret 47.04 otherwise and don’t consider any type of playing is authorized, whatever the enterprise mannequin.

Texas Card Home obtained help from its largest competitor — The Lodge Card Membership, a poker site close to Austin and San Antonio co-owned by Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen. Attorneys for The Lodge submitted an amicus transient in protection of the best to play poker in Texas.

Texas Card Home operates six poker golf equipment throughout the state. The Dallas location has been the goal of the town’s anti-poker stance for years. However, maybe, these the Supreme Court docket ruling would be the finish of it. The poker membership has remained in operation all through the authorized battle.