Source:
https://scmp.com/article/721934/police-show-their-hand-raid-central-poker-house

Police show their hand in raid on Central poker house

A raid on a popular poker house has highlighted determination by police to crack down on illegal gambling in the city.

Angry poker players spent Tuesday night at Central district police station in Sheung Wan following the raid on the Hong Kong Poker House in Hollywood Road, Central, but said they were acting within the law.

The raid occurred at 8.45pm on Tuesday as the city's best-known poker venue was throwing a closing-down party. The owners said they were closing down because the landlord had refused to renew their lease, not because the business was an illegal casino.

Police gatecrashed the party and arrested 176 people on suspicion of illegal gambling in a casino. The 131 men and 45 women, aged between 26 and 61, were released on bail.

About HK$22,000, 10 Texas hold'em gambling tables and 24 boxes of gambling chips with a face value of HK$13 million were seized.

This follows raids on a mahjong house in Mong Kok that was running poker sessions in a back room on the premises last month and on the Seven Deuce Poker House in Jordan in May. The Blue Room Poker House, in Stanley Street, Central, was raided five months ago and forced to close after an undercover police operation.

Gambling is heavily regulated in Hong Kong, with the Jockey Club having a near-monopoly on most forms of betting. But at the Hong Kong Poker House, management said people had been openly playing poker for money thanks to a grey area in anti-gaming laws.

The premises had two floors of poker tables where up to a dozen players played no-limit Texas hold'em. The loophole was that the club did not take a commission on each pot (the sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game) and that as a private club it had a food and beverage licence, which also allowed gambling to take place legally - the same framework that allows mahjong to be played nightly in many restaurants.

Some of those arrested on Tuesday were adamant that no law had been broken, saying it was a private members' club and no money was gambled on the night.

'There was a HK$300 cover charge for free food and drink all night. This was for members of the club and their guests only,' said Andrew Scott, chief executive of Macau-based World Gaming magazine, who was one of those arrested.

'Of course, we used gambling chips, but they were just chips - no one bought any chips. It was like playing with monopoly money. It's a private members club like the Foreign Correspondents' Club, that's all.'

However, police have taken an increasingly dim view of gambling and defended Tuesday night's raid. 'Under the Gambling Ordinance, all gambling activities are illegal except those expressly authorised by the government under the Betting Duty Ordinance (for example, Jockey Club horse racing, soccer betting and the Mark Six),' a police spokesman said.

'There are also those exempted under section 3 of the ordinance, where the games are played on social occasions and are not promoted or conducted by way of trade or business; and those licensed by the commissioner of television and entertainment licensing (for example, mahjong parlours).'

During Tuesday's raid, Scott said, a fire alarm went off for 25 minutes, but police refused to let anyone leave.

'There was total confusion. People were getting very agitated and soon began screaming because they thought the place was on fire. But the police just kept us barricaded in. We didn't know what to do,' he said.

At the police station, those arrested said they were held for up to 17 hours for documentation and bail arrangements. They were released as soon as the bail procedure was completed.

James Bang, who was also arrested, said: 'The police were totally unprepared. When the fire alarm went off, they panicked and lost control. They really didn't know what to do with all of us at the police station or where to put us.

'A pregnant lady was in the same room as me, and fortunately she was allowed out earlier than the rest of us.'

He believed that all the raid would achieve would be to drive poker playing underground.