I have worked in a illegal gambling ring and was eventually raided by the Houston Vice Division. AMA

Did you know your license expires in five days?

I was waiting for this comment, and yes i do thank you.

What is the most fucked up thing you have ever seen in your gambling ring career?

There was a younger couple that used to come into one of my main rooms that i used to work all the time. They were happy, recently married, and the woman was pregnant with his child. They would come in to have a little fun and try to win some money. Well one day the husband left early to go to work and left the lady to herself to spend what she had left and go home, problem was she spent a lot more then what was "left" (always the case btw). Well, at this point i see she had spent more than her usual play, and i front her $20 so she could try and win some of that money back (that is common practice BTW). She didn't. So she came to me for more money and i gave her 20 more. Boom, gone in the matter of seconds. Then she comes to me and asks if she could do anything for more money. I tell her no and that she needed to figure out what she was going to tell her husband. well, 15 mins later i see her walking out of the mens restroom with some guy. I don't know what happened in the restroom but she suddenly had more money to spend on the games. She lost it all. Including her husband. Game rooms are full of regulars who gossip all the time. Word got back to her husband and her child was born a bastard..... Over video slots.

Always thought they were bullshit made up for media.

Weird.

No its very real and very profitable for both sides of the law.

What the benefits of back room gambling over legit casinos other than lines of credit and throwin down tangeable goods as bets? (Or is that movie ttalk)

The number one benefit to our guests was convenience, gambling is illegal in TX and you have to make a 5 hour drive or so to cross state lines to Louisiana, and the casinos just over the border are as good as airport casinos (which will rob you blind with very LOW odds of winning). So if you want to really have a chance you are talking about an 9 hour drive to a REAL casino.

Also, to answer your seconed question, No. Cash is king, we never took anyone's car note or baby as payment.

Does the house always win? What was your best WTF experience?

Overall? Yes, we always won. However, there are people who have luck on their side that day or sometimes always it seemed. Take this guy named able (actual name) this motherfucker would come down drop like 1000$ on a machine loose it all come back the next day and hit triple 7's playing all lines and win 3k. He would do this multiple times on solid machines (which are machines that couldn't be cheated or chances are highly unlikely to be cheated i should say). Now it wasn't everyday or even every month, but the he did it consistently enough to where he was making some insane money doing this. If the bastard wasn't walking with jackpots he would at least walk out the a couple bills.. Crazy.

oh, the wtf moment... umm.. I have a lot, but one that comes to mind is a guy who blew all his money and was offering me a blowjob when he was sitting right next to his MOTHER. The worst part about it was she was pointing at herself and nodding her head when i refused her son, offering her services to me instead.

Any Scorsese-esque tales of gangster-brutality to tell?

kinda. Shit never got really out of control because everyone knew that being in the room was a privilege and most didn't want to blow a chance at not being let back in. But you would have new people that would come in with regulars, which is how you get in to the room as a guest, and how the room makes new guests. Problem is, every one knows a few bad apples and chances are you are going to have to deal with them. Long story short we had a couple of younger guys, and its always the younger men who start shit, trying to cheat the machines. I saw what they were doing and i called it in. Not even 3 mins later i had a guy who i never met come in with out me letting him in, circled the room, spotted the dudes, sat behind them at another machine and scoped them out till he saw what he was looking for. Seconds later he pulled out a gun on them, had them empty their pockets and leave with him. Never saw em again. I do want to say the chances of the guys getting killed at that point were very unlikely because everything was done and every precaution was taken to make sure no heat was brought on the rooms. I imagine they got 86'd spooked by the guy.

trying to cheat the machines.

How do you cheat a machine?

they were on some really cheap machines, which are always the easiest to cheat. Basically they were carefully taping fishing string to 10 and 20 dollar bills. You have to do it a certain way because its not like punching a hole through a quarter, the paper can easily rip when you try to pull it back out after feeding it in. I can tell you that the wire or string has to be secured to the bill in 5 different spots to ensure that the money does not get stuck or rips.

What are the qualifications to be able to get in the room?

you have to know someone, or you have to know where the room is and you take a chance when you ring the doorbell. The doorbell was hidden and there was a false wall behind the initial storefront, so if you didn't know about the bell i wasn't going to hear you knocking over that and the bells and whistles of the slots going off. If i happened to catch you from the corner of my eye on one of my security cameras, the only way i would let you in is if you were a middle aged or older woman. other than that i wasn't going to take a risk.

How many grandmas did you have coming in monthly with their social security checks?

god,.... to many to count.

How did you get involved in such an operation? Was it through friends or completely by chance?

it was through friends i had grown up with.

120 outstanding warrants?!? How the fuck did you get it all (some of it?) dismissed?

Well i had gotten arrested because the lawyers that were hired for me that were supposed to handle my citations were trying to get out of all them with out the owners of the game room paying for them through some stupid loophole that ended up to be complete shit. I understand why they tried to do this because i think the total cost of the citations was upwards of $75,000, and nobody wants to loose $75k. However i ended up getting fucked because of it. I spent a couple days in jail before i was called in to see the judge personally, I was getting a lot of attention by the guards and the inmates because word had spread pretty quick that i had been one of Houstons most wanted list. The judge was a really nice guy and told me that it was in my best interests to plead not guilty in my initial plea, with out saying that directly. 4 days later when my hearing started up the cops never showed up, the judge called me up to talk to me and told me to keep my nose clean and reminded me of how luck i was.

Can you spot someone out or their element, and try to take them for everything? Or do you wait for lady luck to do if for you?

Lady luck robs people blind who don't know what they are doing, but in the same hand will grace them with blind luck. We just spot the big spenders, take good care of them with any want within reason and let the probability do the rest.

[deleted]

ah, Good question. I wasn't the owner of the operations, just a trusted employee. I made $30 an hour for running rooms.

That's it? I ran a poker room(I didn't own it, I just ran it) and I made more than $2500/week. You were getting screwed.

i have no idea about casinos, but how can the house profit from poker? Isn't it just the players who get money?

Poker is profitable because of the 'rake.'

To type or to link... oh, I feel long winded. The house takes either a percentage of every pot (typically 5 or 10%, often up to a limit say 10% up to $5) or $ every hour or half hour. Pot rake is much more popular by the players but also makes for slow games. Time rake is unpopular but induces action.

Also, in illegal games, it is very customary for the club to charge admission, "rental," and have players that collaborate and give a portion to the club.

we would have rakes and we charged you $50 to sit down, if you got up to take a piss 50 more dollars.

How many people were involved in the whole operation and for how long did your work there?

well, I ran 3 different rooms, each with their own games and guests. There was 6 other room operators like myself and we all knew each other. I had to deal with 3 people for money drop offs, pick ups and other random crap like book keeping. The other operators had a couple other people that they had to deal with that i had no idea about. Of course this was by design and there were more people in charge of them, we just never knew how deep the rabbit hole went. I worked for these people for 1 1/2 years before i got stung and left 5 months after that.

Thank you for doing this thread.

Do the gambling rooms appear and work like they do in films?

Were there any moments where you thought that you were in the shits due to the police (apart from when you were caught)?

Your welcome, I'm glad its appreciated.

Yes actually, at least in my rooms. There was a false door to let you in that was completely barred up and had reflective tint to hide the interior which was still hidden by a false wall. To get in you had to ring the door bell which was hidden, i had cameras to see the people on the outside waiting to come in. Once inside you were in a fake store front, full of old ass cloths and useless shit hanging on racks that no one would ever want. If everything was cool and i knew you or had someone vouch for you i would let you in the second door at which point you would pick your poison and try your hand at luck. Funny thing, cops were always hanging outside of our joint because of this nice little restaurant next door down, so i would see cops all the time. At first it freaked me out but after a while you stop caring because I see them so much.

How did you prevent word getting to the police (before the bust up) about your illegal gambling ring? Did you only let in friends-of-customers? Did you have any way of advertising your business, or did you just let the customer base build up gradually?

Well initially you don't have to worry about police because most rooms are hidden in plain sight and people are excited to have found a new place to gamble so they keep it very hush hush. But as your business grows via word of mouth and gossip through other game rooms, the odds of the police finding out are very high, be it other game room owners ratting you out or a disgruntled player who lost all their money and felt they got cheated, which is all the time.

So did the owners pay off cops or how do they stay in business if the cops know?

the real idea is not to shut down the establishment but to leave it open so they can continue to raid it. Wait till the room recoups the costs and make some profit and start all over.

IM coming to houston in July, can we hang out?

Sure?

Was there a distinct "illegal gambling culture" or did it just seem like a regular time at the casino?

Yes, there was and is an illegal gambling culture, and a very complicated one at that. Once you added in the police into the equation it gets really stupid because the police know you are there.

When it was raided, what was your punishment? How did people in the casino react?

well, the cops came in and told the guests they could go one by one after getting their ID's and making sure they didn't have any warrants. So once the guests seen that first guest walk out the door the calmed down pretty quick. Me on the other hand? not so much. The cops lined up 6 deep found a seat and literally opened a book of laws and citations concerning building codes and gambling and started writing tickets. It was like an assembly line for citations, i was forced to sign them all, yes forced, or i was going to have a very bad time. After i had signed off on all the tickets they left. Because the real idea is not to shut down the establishment but to leave it open so they can continue to raid it. Wait till the room recoups the costs and make some profit and start all over.

How did you end up getting caught? What was the bust like?

My girlfriend had gone out drinking with a few friends and wanted to come home early, so she gave me a call to pick her up and i did just that. I had seen the blue and reds flashing behind me and i knew my gig as a free man was up, and that my future at that point was very uncertain. The cop came up to the car and had this really weird look on his face, like he was surprised, and scared with a half caulked smile on his face at the same time. He didn't ask me if i knew why he had pulled me over, only to simply step out of the car. He immediately handcuffed me and put me into his car. He was nice enough to let me call my girlfriend to come pick up the car and talk to her about it. When we were finally both in the car i asked him why was there such urgency to arrest me. He told me that when he had punched in my plates that he got a notice to arrest me before he even knew why. As we were sitting in the car he was talking to the dispatch or whatever, it was a lady and i remember her saying "I have never seen anything like this before" I laughed and arrogance swept over my body. He was loading all my warrants onto his computer as we were driving and from the point of my arrest to the jail the warrants were still loading in. Before we got out he asked me "Shit son, what the hell did you do?"

Houston has a vice division?!?

Yes they cover two aspects of Houston underbelly, Game rooms and Asian spa's. So basically Gambling and prostitution.

I've been to the Asian spa's in Houston before. Better than going to a strip club.

yeah, at least you get laid.

you look like a badass.

thanks, that photo was taken at 4:30am so i didn't feel bad ass.

[deleted]

That's a vague question, but I'm going to assume you are talking about the types of gambling my rooms were involved in. Slots, Video slots, blackjack and poker were the main games, however i could always call in a bet if some one wanted some action.

How does one get introduced into this type of situation?

Friends of friends when you are growing up.

Did anyone ever try anything from the Oceans movies?

No, we had too many money drops and pick ups to have a substantial amount of money to make it worth going through all that trouble. But I guess if you were desperate and needed money gun point robbery was always an option.

So what was the punishment for having that questionable odor in the toilets?

A fine. I will have you know, that my restrooms were very clean. They were writing tickets for anything they could. It's about making money for them, just like it was for us. I'm telling you, the HPD has the best racket in town.

[deleted]

A raid, I had about 7 cops in uniform beating down on the storefront with 3 detectives waiting for them to do their job so they could do theirs. I was really freaked out because i saw them on the cameras and how many, which seemed like 100 at the time. I called my main contact and was told to hide or destroy the books and hide what ever money i could in the secret hiding spots. I had people inside gambling and they were freaked out as well, but they couldn't go anywhere because there was only one exit. It took me about 5 mins to hide the books and money (which seemed like an eternity when cops are beating down your door). I opened the door and said "can i help you gentlemen?" they yolked me up by my neck and slammed my head on the security bars. I still have the scar on my forehead.

Did they find the books and money?

No they did not, i hid the books in between the stacks of soda we had in the stock room for restocking the fridge. The money came up missing, they must have found it cough cough

Did they find the hidden money/books?

No they did not, i hid the books in between the stacks of soda we had in the stock room for restocking the fridge. The money came up missing, they must have found it cough cough

Did you wear some sweet-ass black shades?

No, i needed to keep my eyes pealed at all times. couldn't really worry about looking sweet.

Why would anyone trust your organization? You could rig the games and no one could complain to any authorities. It has potential to be worse than a carnival.

well, you are right to a certain extent we can and did tilt the machines. But we had to make sure people were winning money. If people don't see other people making money then your not going to make a lot of money. If a room is ran right, some one should win about every 5 mins, less if the room was full.

How does an illegal gambling ring even work?

Can you describe the setup?

Part of this answer was taken from another answer There was a false door to let you in that was completely barred up and had reflective tint to hide the interior which was still hidden by a false wall. To get in you had to ring the door bell which was hidden as well and i had cameras to see the people on the outside waiting to come in. Once inside you were in a fake store front, full of old ass cloths and useless shit hanging on racks that no one would ever want. If everything was cool and i knew you or had someone vouch for you i would let you in the second door. Once you got inside it was pretty sweet, bright red walls with all kids of action happening all around you.

God damn this is interesting.

Thank you. I'm just glad its appreciated

Did you ever go there to gamble personally? Or was it strictly for work?

When it was slow and no guests were their i would pop in a couple dollars in a crappy nickle machine and waste time. But i knew better than to come and waste my money. Funny thing, after i started to work in the game room i lost my luck. I couldn't win a friendly bet or otherwise. So i don't gamble at all anymore.

What is the biggest payout you've ever seen made?

What's the biggest loss you've seen someone incur in one bet?

10k payout. I have seen some one loose their life in the matter of 5 hours. I think the total loss on his part was only $1200 but by the end of his run he was sweating buckets. A large part of that $1200 was to pay his back child support, and was to show the courts that he could make a good faith payment so he did not loose custody of his 5 year old daughter. His mind set was to win a little extra money so that he could take her do Disney Land after he got rights to see her again. He lost it all... and he lost custody and visitation rights to his daughter. He was crying the most heart wrenching cry ever. I gave the man a total of $100 to try and win some of it back (which was WAY breaking the rules) but i couldn't help it.... I'm crying right now as im typing this.... I felt so bad for him.. he just wanted to take her to Disney Land. so he could be a good dad in her eyes. But he was so wrapped up in his sickness that he wasn't of any kind of rational mind. From my understanding he killed himself... And that is the most i have ever seen anyone loose.

Any colorful players/pimps?

Any sad gambling addicts?

No pimps or anything of the sort, i wouldn't let them in if they wanted. That would only spell trouble for the room, and part of my job was to screen that crap out. Sadly yes, the addicts were what made my job so soul deadening at times. I had to keep them coming back by offering 20-40 bucks (depending on what they spent) so they could try to win some money back, but they always loose way more than they could afford because they are riding the high from gambling, some people experience that "High" more than others and they are always the most desperate and sad.

What kind of amenities did your casinos have? Drinks, food?

Yes! We didn't server alcohol, because drunk people + Loosing all their money = a really bad time. But we had a refrigerator full of sodas, water, juice and we would have fresh food delivered throughout the day from our contacts. One of the perks of working there.

Thanks for doing this, I can tell it's going to be interesting. Just 2 questions:

• How do illegal gambling rings operate, with a decent amount of customers I assume, without coming to the attention of the police.
• How does security work in terms of cheaters or fights?

As far as security goes, on Fridays and Saturdays we would hire some one to sit in the false room, but that was just for show, i could make a call and in less than 5 minutes i would have a 100% bad ass walk thought my door strapped and ready to go. The police know about the rooms, thats the thing, people dont understand. For the HPD and Harris county, its a racket. You allow the places to operate, make money, then raid them and slam them with a shit ton of citations. anywhere from $75k-200K worth of fines would come down on their head (depending on how serious the room is) and the rooms have to pay it. After this happens they allow the rooms to recoup their money lost, allow them to make some profit and hit em again. This is the way of a TRUE racket.

Are you able to disclose the location of any of these casinos that got taken down? I remember a friend and I driving down Mason Rd in Katy and she says her and her friend go to this place to gamble which was in the back of this strip center. A few weeks later we were driving by again and there were tons of Harris County SO vehicles everywhere in the strip center. She says the casino probably got busted.

Your friends little place didn't get busted, they got busted out of business. The people running that joint couldn't pay the fines so they shut the place down. Its only if you can't pay the fine that they shut you down. Apparently the juice wasn't worth the squeeze for that room.

I know this comment will never be seen, but I'd just like to try for some kind of response.

I know that you are obviously not the cause for my father's gambling addiction, but I'd just like to say he is an avid customer of these so-called "Game Rooms." He has even gone so far as to work at one of these establishments. We actually live in Southwest Houston.

I truly do not want to hate you directly, but I just want to vent for a bit over my hatred for these hidden, mini-casinos that have caused my father to go and even steal money from my mother to go play. Some weeks he has even asked her for a couple hundred dollars to go play, and she gives it to him! She also goes to them herself!

I understand this is a personal matter and it is due to my own family's faults, but I feel these 'rooms' have some kind of hand in the corruption of my father and even other father's (some of them my own uncles and family friends) due to their convenient locations (i.e gas stations, fake video game stores, abandoned stores with tinted windows, nearby strip malls).

Thank you for your time. =)

Thank you so much for this, i really am not a fan of game rooms at all. People say that this stuff should be legalized and regulated but i have seen so much pain and loss in every meaning of the word that i cannot advocate it in any way. I'm honestly sorry for you father problem, there is Gamblers anonymous if you can get your father to go. I truly know your pain and i wish i could help. My heart goes out to you and your family. Please try to get him to go to GA if you can't get your family, call your relatives from out of state to come help him realize he has a problem.

Did you know the Donalsons??

The family's houses were raided last year and HPD walked out with over 1.5m in cash from illegal game rooms.

Just curious as to how tight-knit the underground gambling community.

I might have been working for them for all i know.. i had contacts but i never knew who was really running the show.

Texan here. Do you think our state should legalize gambling like our neighbor, Louisiana? We already have a lotto system and some politicians think gambling would be a great income for the state.

Also, how rampant do you believe or know gambling to be in Texas, and more especially Houston?

No, i don't like what gambling does to people and family's. In the end it destroys them. Its worse than alcohol, drugs and prostitution. Yes you can have fun with it, and it is fun to play, but it becomes a habit, a culture, people work just to dump money in casinos, when that money could be used for anything else and have more substance. That is my opinion. Really though, you have to ask, what do you really walk away with when you gamble? because i promise you, it certainly not coming out on top.

I have the same birthday as you! Happy birthday to us very soon!

Wahhooo!! thank you! happy b-day to you!

Did you carry an handgun in case this went all Costa Rica?

no, i had a guy for that who would show up faster than any police would even in the whitest and richest of neighborhoods.

I would have like to have found my dismissal papers from the courts but i cant find them for the life of me.

I am calling bullshit on this guy's story. I have access to everything, and I looked him up. I can't disclose anything, but I can tell you what ISN'T there, and it's that he ever had a case for gambling like he says he did, and he didn't spend time in jail for that.

I never said i had gambling charges, never. I said over and over that i had building code citations and other nonsense. So are you saying that my failure to have a tax sticker on a coin operated machine was supposed be on a pinball table or Time Cop? Are you implying that i got 120+ citations for running an arcade room? that's kinda fucked up. And if you really had access like you said you do, you would see that i spent time in jail. And if not, maybe some shit was really going down back door style... because i tell you what, i was in jail sir, I was the Money Man, motherfucker. So i call bullshit on you.. 100% bullshit.