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City and federal authorities conducted a raid last week on a Midtown house where local gamblers have gathered for years for illegal poker games, police said.
The midnight raid on a two-story, single-family home at 4100 Arctic Blvd. found several employees and nine players on the premises, including furrier and semi-professional poker player Perry Green, a strong advocate of legalized gaming in Alaska. No one was arrested, but thousands of dollars from two Texas Hold 'em poker games was seized, and police said they are continuing to investigate.
The raid last Tuesday night follows two others made this spring by the police, which this year has made vice crimes, including gambling, a higher priority. Police said they hope the raids send a message to would-be gamblers to stay away from illegal gambling houses, which, according to police, often attract other crimes.
After a year-long investigation, including undercover operations, authorities Tuesday night served warrants on three properties -- the gambling house, a second, related Anchorage property, and the Wasilla home of a man allegedly involved in the illegal business. Cards, felt tables, poker chips and more than $50,000 in cash were seized, said the lead investigator on the case, Anchorage police Detective Mark LaPorte.
The house has been a local gambling hub for years, with several operators running gambling businesses there, police said.
According to an online database of property records, the home belongs to Anchorage-based company Idle Wheels, which also owns the adjacent mobile home park. Calls to the company Monday were not immediately returned.
LaPorte said a woman lives in the residence, which was used for gambling at least one night a week. Every Tuesday, two different gambling operations set up from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., he said.
In one room, junk mail was piled high against the walls as players put down $1,000 to join the game, he said. In another, the buy-in was $100.
The "rake," or house cut, was 5 percent -- for every $100 bet put on the table, the house took $5, he said.
Employees served drinks and food, including barbecued ribs.
LaPorte would not say how much money the gambling house was making or identify the card players and employees who were there the night of the raid.
Green, a three-time winner of World Series of Poker, acknowledged in a telephone interview last week that he and some golfing friends were at the house when police arrived.
"I never said I was playing," he said.
Why not simply invite friends over for a game at home? he was asked.
"Well, that would be a good idea, wouldn't it?" Green said. "But you're not always able to do that."
State statutes say it can be a misdemeanor or felony violation to operate a gambling house for profit, depending on the scale of the operations. It also is illegal to play in such a game.
Anchorage law prohibits gambling of any kind under an ordinance passed by the former Borough Assembly in 1970 and incorporated by the new municipality after unification of the borough and city governments in 1975. That law applies even to casual card games among friends, but police have rarely, if ever, enforced it, city officials said.
"I don't know that we are necessarily going to go around trying to sneak a peak into people's windows looking for kitchen poker games," said city attorney Fred Boness.
The FBI also participated in last week's raid, and federal charges may be considered, said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez.
The two other illegal gambling houses were shut down in the spring, both were in Fairview and both were card rooms. Nobody has been charged in those raids, either.
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