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A retired judge who operates poker rooms in southern Arizona in defiance of state investigators says his organization is opening a new card parlor in Phoenix later this month.

Texas Hold'em games operated by Harold Lee of Tombstone have been referred for criminal prosecution several times by agents of the Arizona Department of Gaming, but he has never been charged.

The Attorney General's Office this week issued an e-mail statement saying it declined prosecution because there is "no reasonable likelihood of conviction."

Lee also is planning a new poker club in Tucson. The expansion of his league and the attorney general's opinion create questions about whether more private poker rooms could sprout up statewide.

A former justice of the peace in Phoenix, Lee says the reason is simple: Poker is a contest of skill, and club members who play for money are not in violation of state law unless the game's host takes a cut of the prize money.

Lee operates his no-limit games through a league where members pay a membership fee and are asked to tip the volunteer dealers as they see fit.

The new Valley enterprise, to be known as Arizona Card Room of Northwest Phoenix, is scheduled to open next Sunday in Poker Nation, a retail store at 1859 E. Greenway Road. Lee says he has a franchise agreement with Poker Nation.

Christine Korza, owner of Poker Nation, said that the tentative opening date is next Sunday.

Lee is developing his controversial league in an era of unprecedented poker popularity, with professional Texas Hold'em players vying for million-dollar pots on national-TV broadcasts. Lee says he will go to jail if that's what it takes to prove that poker is not gambling but is analogous to sports contests where winners receive prize money.

He wrote a letter to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon last month asking for moral support and inviting the mayor to be an honorary card-room manager for the inaugural benefit tournament.

"We ask that you help us break free of the gambling industry and lend your considerable influence assisting us with providing safer, fairer and more secure arenas for our lawful game, its players and our bona fide industry," an open letter posted on the Internet reads.

George Weisz, senior assistant to Gordon, said he does not believe the Mayor's Office received the letter.

Gaming Department agents investigated Lee in 2006 and 2007, each time requesting felony charges. In January, when a reporter asked about those referrals, Attorney General Terry Goddard's spokeswoman said no action was taken because of a lack of resources. Goddard decided to reconsider after viewing Lee's Web site but again declined to file charges.

Seena Simon, spokeswoman for the Gaming Department, said that a separate criminal referral submitted to the Cochise County Attorney's Office in January also got rejected.

Lee says he represents poker players in Arizona under the auspices of a not-for-profit organization he created, the International Card & Game Players Association. He says the Gaming Department has been derelict in regulating tribal casinos even as its agents seek to have him arrested.

Lee contends that tribes conducted illicit poker games that were not allowed under a compact with the state and collected a percentage of prizes in violation of Arizona law. Simon said Arizona's gaming compact with tribes was amended in 2002 to include poker and to let casinos take a portion of each pot.

Except on reservations, Arizona law bans the promotion of, or profit from, games of chance. A similar controversy developed in the 1980s when about 250 social-gambling halls started up at saloons statewide after the Legislature created a loophole in anti-gambling statutes. Criminals could be found in many of the establishments, which were shut down when lawmakers changed the law in 1990.

Lee said his clubs are exempt because poker is a game of skill. He said games are monitored and players are banished for misconduct. Korza, the business owner, said that video cameras are being installed at Poker Nation and that security will be hired on big-money nights.

Written by Dennis Wagner

azcentral.com