Michael Gracz Ticketed in North Carolina Poker Raid
Michael Gracz Ticketed in North Carolina Poker Raid
By Dan
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Email Print
Poker pro Maciek "Michael" Gracz was one of 71 people charged with illegal gambling crimes over the weekend when law enforcement officials raided an underground poker club in North Carolina.
Agents from the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement confiscated about $70,000 from a secluded one-story building, replete with professional poker tables, a kitchen, and wait staff. "This wasn't a basement card game," said Pat Forbis, a supervisory agent of the Division.
Gracz was only charged with “engaging in a game of chance,” a violation of the law of similar severity as breaking the speed limit. Eleven people were charged with the more serious crime of “operating a game of chance.”
Gracz was livid, saying that it was a ridiculous waste of time and taxpayers’ money for over a dozen agents to have spent eight hours at the poker club.
"They could go catch sexual predators or something that has a real impact on society," he said. "If they had gotten two guys to come there, they could have asked us to leave the premises and we would have left.”
Michael Gracz won both a World Poker Tour title (PartyPoker Million) and a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2005.
By Dan
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Email Print
Poker pro Maciek "Michael" Gracz was one of 71 people charged with illegal gambling crimes over the weekend when law enforcement officials raided an underground poker club in North Carolina.
Agents from the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement confiscated about $70,000 from a secluded one-story building, replete with professional poker tables, a kitchen, and wait staff. "This wasn't a basement card game," said Pat Forbis, a supervisory agent of the Division.
Gracz was only charged with “engaging in a game of chance,” a violation of the law of similar severity as breaking the speed limit. Eleven people were charged with the more serious crime of “operating a game of chance.”
Gracz was livid, saying that it was a ridiculous waste of time and taxpayers’ money for over a dozen agents to have spent eight hours at the poker club.
"They could go catch sexual predators or something that has a real impact on society," he said. "If they had gotten two guys to come there, they could have asked us to leave the premises and we would have left.”
Michael Gracz won both a World Poker Tour title (PartyPoker Million) and a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2005.
Comments
Are you sure it was $40,000?