According to The Dallas Morning News, the poker club didn’t have the proper permit to operate. The club, located on Regal Row, dealt some of its last hands back in late May several months after it was sued by the city for lacking the correct certificate of occupancy.
“We’ve confirmed that tonight will in fact be our last night of operation at this location,” the club said in a Facebook post on May 31. “We do look forward to sharing our soon-to-be-announced new DFW location, further reestablishing everyone’s favorite home away from home.”
A Dallas County district judge ruled in favor of the city in May, saying Poker House Dallas had to cease operations. That ruling was challenged in the court of appeals, but that appeal was dismissed last week. Poker House Dallas did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the city said it couldn't comment due to ongoing litigation.
The Poker House Dallas owners originally started operating the location as a strip club called La Zona Rosa Cabaret after getting a certificate of occupancy from the city to do so in 2017. Four years later, the club notified the city that it intended to become a private poker room, according to the Morning News, but it never got a new certificate of occupancy to make the change.
Rebecca Thompson, a local poker player, said she used to play at Poker House Dallas quite a bit. “I think everyone was surprised they didn’t get shut down earlier,” Thompson said, referring to the club having the wrong certificate of occupancy.
All of this comes as the city is tangled up in litigation with two other local poker clubs and its own Board of Adjustment. The Board of Adjustment issued certificates of occupancy to two clubs, Texas Card House and Shuffle 214. While gambling is illegal in Texas, under some interpretations of the law poker rooms are allowed as long as they abide by three rules: If they’re in private places, every player has an equal chance of winning and the house doesn’t take a cut of the bets, the cards can be dealt.“I think everyone was surprised they didn’t get shut down earlier.” – Rebecca Thompson, local poker player
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Poker clubs have gotten by as private places in Dallas by instituting membership fees, making them private clubs. This was the interpretation of the law Dallas’ Board of Adjustment was going with when it approved the other two clubs. But in 2021, Dallas decided that these exemptions to Texas gambling laws were never meant to apply to games at businesses like Texas Card House and Shuffle 214.
That’s why the city revoked the clubs’ certificates of occupancy that year. When the clubs appealed this move to the Board of Adjustment, they won their certificates back because nothing had changed about the businesses.
The city then sued its own Board of Adjustment for the move, claiming the board abused its power when returning the certificates. The city could spend up to $620,000 on the litigation between the two clubs and its own Board of Adjustment.
District Judge Eric Moyé ruled in favor of the city in November, agreeing that the board had abused its power. Texas Card House appealed the decision, and the litigation has been ongoing ever since.
Texas Card House CEO Ryan Crow told the Observer there’s nothing new to report on the lawsuits his company is involved in, but he’s hoping there will eventually be a legal path forward for poker rooms in Dallas. “I’ve spoken to the other club owners and we are all hoping the city will adopt new zoning rules that allow us to get [certificates of occupancy] and we can all drop these expensive lawsuits,” he said.
