Several of the social poker clubs operating within the city limits of Dallas, Texas are facing a new legal threat to their existence following a reported move by the city's attorney's office to revoke the rooms' certificates of occupancy, a necessary condition to operate any business within the city.
Dallas-Fort Worth's CBS 11 aired a video on the city's attempt to shut down the rooms, focusing on the Texas Card House Dallas, a poker club on the city's northwest side. CBS 11 interviewed the room's CEO, Ryan Crow, who received a notice from the city declaring his occupancy certificate had been revoked. The revocation was dated December 17, 2021, and it declared that the permit's revocation was due to "Keeping a Gambling Place" in violation of Texas legal code.
According to Crow, "We spent about two and a half years trying to find a location that we could open that the city approved." Texas Card House Dallas continues to operate and has posted a notice of appeal on the property. Crow declared that the room employs roughly 215 people, and the room serves 400 to 500 players on an average day.
Neighborhood's councilman continues to support poker rooms' existence
The CBS 11 report briefly featured the councilman representing the district including Texas Card House Dallas. District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, who backs the rooms' existence, told the local outlet, "I think it’s unfair that all of a sudden all of these COs (certificates of occupancy) for all of these card rooms were suddenly revoked. Unfortunately, our city attorney has decided to change the idea of what he believes to be the rules of the card under the law."
CBS 11 reportedly received no response to an inquiry sent to the city attorney's office, nor was it able to determine if other poker clubs operating within Dallas's city limits had received similar revocation notices, despite Narvaez's assertion that the revocations affected multiple rooms. Texas Card House Dallas was the first social poker club to receive the city's approval, on October 23, 2020. The December revocation notice Crow received declares that "the [city] is required to revoke a certificate of occupancy if [it] determines that it was issued in error."
At least two other social poker clubs besides Texas Poker House Dallas operate within the city's boundaries. Those include Poker House Dallas, also on the city's northwest side, and Shuffle 214, on Dallas's northeast edge. All three rooms continue to operate at the present time, and none of the rooms prominently display any messaging on social media that a battle with the city over their ongoing existence has emerged.
Featured image source: Facebook/TCHDallas
