BUSTED : Advertised Home Poker Games Online


Posted 2/25/11 : Chesapeake police raid homes following tip-off
 
Police in Chesapeake have charged three men with running illegal poker games at two houses, reports the Virginia-Pilot newspaper, naming Paul Klingbeil, Robert Lee Richardson and Galloway P. Martinez.
 
According to official documentation, the police have been monitoring Klingbeil following a tip-off in November last year. The informant described playing poker at Klingbeil's house for four years on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Games were advertised through text messages and on the Internet, the affidavit reveals.
 
The informant told police Klingbeil ran as many as three poker tables at a time with as many as 20 to 30 players, and the operation resembled a casino, with armed security, free liquor and security cameras mounted outside the house. The defendants took a rake of 10 percent on every poker hand dealt, it is alleged.
 
Earlier this year the police surveillance identified Martinez and Richardson, who advertised professional poker games on the Internet and listed their phone numbers. This led to the development of a sting operation involving an undercover officer, the affidavit says. The detective played for three hours and saw Martinez and Richardson dealing poker and taking 10 percent from every hand; on a later date he reported again visiting the premises under cover and seeing Richardson dealing hands and Klingbeil and a woman trading cash for chips.