Murders, Rapes, and Drugs OH MY!
The City Paper dropped enough names in their article about busting the Owl's Club and Oriole's club - of which - everyone I know that plays or *eh hem* attempts to play professional style poker - belongs to.
The situation at the Owls Nest revolves first and foremost around the relationship between its principals-Joseph Anthony Cary, 50, and Gerald Curtis Dickens, 65-and Frank Darby Moran Sr., 76, a man dubbed by some as "the king of Arbutus."
Easily the most dubious moniker ever heardRight around front, in the same strip of small businesses that houses the Orioles Nest, are the 12th Legislative District office of state Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, Del. Steven Deboy, and Del. James Malone, all Democrats.
What I don't understand is why city officials decided to come down so hard on this little club. Do the poker clubs not grease Maryland politicians enough for them to have a club with 5/10 10/20 tables? Is this really a drain on the local economy and was their "skim" that much that charities got suspicious? Is there really a need for this sort of investigation given its proximity to two police stations a fire station, hospital and several municipal institutions? (I.e. nobody was hiding anything about this place and I know plenty of cops that I have not only played with but have helped to "bounce" for the club.)
The Owl's nest wasn't the classiest poker room on the east coast but it certainly was a straight game. There was no smoking at the table, very little booze and there weren't naked girls hanging from the ceiling or guys blowing lines off the urinal in the back. People were there to play poker. More importantly and quite ironically people came to this club in particular, because people were there to play a straight game of poker. The reason this place was busted was because they apparently did not live up to their charitable reputation. That and they were playing the wrong kind of cards. It's funny how you can play 7 card, 5 card, Hi Low but you can't play Texas Hold 'em.
Baltimore ranks 2nd for crime in cities over a 500K population in crime, and 6th overall. Are there not enough murders, rapes being committed that vice squads need to be assigned to break up a poker room and arrest 95 people (letting all their buddies go I'm sure) although no emergency call or complaint had been filed against an otherwise peacefully run private club? The raid was a little over the top. Why not just come in and serve papers to the proprietors?
I love this part:
After Cary and Dickens split from Moran's Orioles and started the Owls Nest, "we didn't want our organization to be associated in any way with the Owls," Sachse says, citing Moran's bitterness over Cary's disloyalty and the Owls' indiscretion in holding widely publicized games on a regular basis. "I mean," Sachse adds incredulously, "they were advertising in the Sunpapers!"
What I find funny is that advertising in the Sun Paper for a club offering low stakes poker games behind private doors with private members is considered a vice hit squad type of crime. They couldn't have pulled more than 1000 a night after paying everyone.
I find it all pretty hilarious that in this filth bag shit box of a city they decide to eliminate a place that people went after hours to play cards and see their friends. They won't tear down the housing projects with squatters, and they don't attempt to clean up the open air drug market on the west side, and they'll put up more section 8 housing in the middle of Fells Point and Federal Hill, and we average a murder a day and 1 murder a week of a child - the Owl's Nest Poker Club where I have walked with no more than 300$ to play poker has been shut down because they didn't have a permit to play Texas Hold 'Em poker!
"The time is ripe to take the lead in regulating it, so it's legal," says Toni Aguilar a 500$ recipient of the Owl's nest charity. "It's so hypocritical. The state has keno, the lottery—all games of chance, not skill like poker-and they take money from people who can least afford it. With poker, I know some very prominent lawyers and people in politics who play the games. Any night of the week, you can find a house game, so why not make it legal?"
A RAID WAS SET UP! Now I know what you are saying and I know what you are visualizing, like it was something out of Harlem Nights or Goodfellas with smoke filled rooms and girls in cocktail waitress outfits and crooked nose gangsters. No. It was myself and Merril Lynch employees and Legg Mason guys, lawyers, doctors and cops and firemen and bar owners and bar tenders and normal everyday people having a good time. Now I didn't patronize the place more than 4 times but I feel a little miffed that this club was shut down while others are allowed to operate under the same circumstances. I know whose jurisdiction this fell under and I know there are more than 6 or 7 other poker clubs operating out in the open in this city. (Korea town, 2 on the west side, 1 in canton under the FRIGGIN SUPERMARKET!...) And it's not like I'm a junior crime mafioso. I'm a guy just like you who likes to play poker. Eventually you'll find a game but these aren't hard to find so why aren't they taken down?
This bust was racially and financially motivated due to the lack of kick backs being accounted for by a new business/club on the West side of Russel Street. This was a county club forced to come to the city due to a break up of partnership and slipping attendance. Once here, they failed to grease the right palms and within 10 months were shut down. The irony comes in that the cops who everyone has seen there were all involved in the bust. Lovely town I love in...
And for those looking for an update on Gino:
Peter's Pour House on Mercer Street near Camden Yards was raided this past spring. Eugene Lovito of Fund Raisers Unlimited was charged with gambling in the Peter's case, but the charges were shelved by the prosecutor.
Hopefully we'll see old uncle Gino and Donny V out again this year. And hopefully we all won't be arrested for playing 5 dollar black jack in front of Camden Yards.
