Rough Poker Night in New York

Poker players in New York got busted this weekend, not by their hands, but by the New York police.

A swat teamed dressed in bulletproof vests and raid jackets entered a New York poker club and arrested the dealers, took the money and sent all the players home, it is reported that there 39 employees arrested and roughly $100,000 confiscated.

These arrests are not a new thing, there have been big crackdowns over the last year including in October when 13 were arrested.

Betting money on poker in a club is illegal in the city and there are a lot of people upset by all the arrests that have been going on in recent months.

"People just want to play poker, and because there are no legal clubs in the city, they turn to underground clubs," said Phil Hellmuth, a former World Series of Poker champion. "[I’m] a bit shocked anyone's making a big deal over the New York's poker scene"

Poker made the news earlier this month when baseball’s American League MVP Alex Rodriguez was caught playing poker at one of the illegal clubs. The New Yankee infielder was caught by the New York Daily News. Rodriguez is one of the various celebrities that have attended these games.

"In retrospect, it's probably a place I shouldn't have gone," admitted baseball’s richest man.

There has been talk about making poker legal for people in New York, but there is a lot of resistance.

"We realized that this [playing poker for money] was the start of a problem because there is lots of money involved," vice squad Lt. Pasquale Morena said at the time of the Players Club takedown. "We don't know where the profits from the gambling are going."

Usually these underground clubs do not take a percentage of the pot, there is usually a fee charged to players every 15 minutes of play.