SOUTH CAROLINA POKER BUST

11 April 2008

Prosecutor resigns after detention at home poker game


The police in Charleston County, South Carolina has announced the arrest of 27 citizens and the confiscation of some $40 000 in raids on home poker games in three SC counties this week.

Among those arrested was Don Sorenson, a long-serving prosecutor for the state with responsibilities in the Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg counties, who submitted his resignation following the bust and was placed on unpaid suspension. Reports on the raid were not clear on the fate of the other arrested players, although the police said they anticipated making further arrests in the case.

Most of the arrests took place at one home - that of Martin and Dawn Reyes - in a raid that is already generating conflicting claims. The police assert that the issue of a search warrant and the subsequent operation was the culmination of a 10 month long investigation, but Dawn Reyes told local reporters that her husband had been organising the events for only eight months.

Charleston County Sheriff's Major John Clark, in a release on the raid, alleged that the Reyes had paid pitbosses and dealers in an illegal poker operation that involved 65 employees, but Reyes said her husband was the only one involved and that he was not paid to manage the games.

But Clark was adamant that the games were part of an organised business. "This isn't boys' poker night out," he said. "This isn't just friends getting together and playing poker for a quarter or a dollar. This was an organised poker operation in which they had people in positions who were acting as employees. They were being paid to do their jobs."

Clark said authorities identified four locations in addition to The Reyes' home where the same core group of people met on specified nights to engage in casino-style gambling. The raid on the Reyes' home took place around 10 p.m. Friday and arrested 26 people. Another person was arrested Saturday at an undisclosed location.

Dawn Reyes said she was just about to step into the shower when a group of officers, some wearing ski masks, came through the front door.

More officers swarmed the bottom floor where the couple keeps a small office and the game room. They left little behind downstairs, seizing two poker tables, the plastic tables she used for snacks, a ceiling-mounted projector and its screen and a flat-screen TV. She said they also took her laptop.

Martin Reyes began playing Texas Hold 'em about a year ago and started hosting games about eight months ago, his wife said. Initially 12 or 13 people attended, but the games grew, she said. Reyes described the participants as a bunch of friends and said her husband wasn't paid. He controlled the chips because he hosted the game, but if a player cashed out at the end of the night with $2 000 in chips, that's what he got back, she said, implying that there was no rake.

In contrast, Clark described the Reyes as having an efficient operation that ran like a business. "They had specific nights that they gambled. The bosses determined where the games were being held and determined the buy-in. That buy-in was anywhere from $300 to $1 000 a game, he said. And the person who sponsored the event was paid a specific amount each time a hand was played.

Those arrested Friday night and Saturday were charged by Hanahan police with unlawful games and betting. Twelve of the 26 had outstanding warrants through the Charleston County Sheriff's Office for unlawful games and betting, Clark said.

That charge is a magistrate's-level offense, but Clark said the people who were dealers or bosses will likely face General Sessions charges, meaning the punishment could be harsher..

Poker is illegal under a 200-year-old state law that prohibits dice and card games, and South Carolina police have in the past raided other local games, such as a 2006 Texas hold 'em tournament at a Mount Pleasant house (see previous InfoPowa report).

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