North Texas poker lounge raided, over $200K confiscated

WATAUGA, Texas — Cellphone video confirmed a few of the tense moments as Tarrant County investigators performed a shock raid at a poker lounge. 

It occurred on Oct. 9, 2022. Now, the proprietor of Watauga Social Lounge is called in courtroom paperwork and faces unlawful playing prices after an undercover investigation. 

The lounge is within the Watauga Regency Square procuring middle.

The raid caught barber Jamie Marquez without warning. He works on the Texas Barber Cartel. Marquez began reducing hair on the location a couple of yr in the past. 

He has been working onerous to construct up his clientele so making them really feel at dwelling within the barbershop is essential. Jamie even works on Sundays to accommodate a few of his clients’ schedules. 

The final thing he wanted is to attempt to clarify the heavy police presence outdoors their enterprise. 

“They had maybe seven police cars and DEA,” mentioned Marquez. “They came out with masks and everything. They had people come out in handcuffs.”

Investigators from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Game Room Regulation Unit performed the undercover sting with assist from the Mid-Cities Drug Task Force. The search warrant additionally included help from officers with the Watauga Police Department. 

Court paperwork say throughout a number of visits workers charged undercover officers, who posed as poker gamers, unlawful charges.

The proprietor of the Watauga Social Lounge faces prices of organized felony exercise, protecting a playing place and playing promotion. 

In all, investigators arrested 10 folks and wrote 49 citations through the raid. The a number of police automobiles seen on the procuring middle received folks’s consideration, together with Marquez and his clients.

Marquez mentioned, “It was pretty, pretty intense. It was my first I’ve seen that in real life.”

The 35 gadgets confiscated through the raid included bins of poker chips and enjoying playing cards, membership playing cards bought to gamers and greater than $200,000 money. 

It’s one thing Marquez did not count on his clients to see whereas visiting his Texas Barber Cartel.

Marquez mentioned, “We try to make it feel like a family here.”