The San Antonio Police Department disclosed some details about its investigation of WSOP finalist Richard Lee, who they allege is part of a illegal bookmaking operation.Since February, a vice officer has rifled through trash, tailed luxury cars, gambled online and sorted through a string of local bank accounts and phone records in an effort to gather evidence against Lee and others, according to an affidavit for a search warrant released Friday.
What police found could alter the public poker face of this city's once-celebrated gambling star, who placed sixth last month while hyping San Antonio in the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas.
Lee, otherwise known as "The Chinaman," is the "biggest bookie" in San Antonio, according to a "credible source" quoted in the document. The affidavit also names Lee as the brains behind an illegal Internet gambling operation run in part from his Shavano Park home.
Wow. "The Chinaman." Welcome to 1956, everybody.
The SAPD allege that Richard Lee is connected to a website called www.betbsbnow.com which claims to be located off shore, but is, in fact, in San Antonio.
More details, including how the SAPD became aware of the operation and how they conducted their investigation, can be found at PokerGazette, via the link below.
My (pretty useless) analysis? Though he seemed like a really good guy when I saw him at the WSOP, and his recent comments to the press appear to confirm that, things look very, very bad for Richard Lee right now.
We should also be very concerned that opportunistic lawmakers, with an eye toward the election, will attempt to conflate this illegal bookmaking operation (if they prove their case in court) with online poker, and online poker players, especially since -- oh shit -- it appears that Mr. Lee was playing online poker when his house was raided which the District Attorney says "that act in and of itself is illegal." Oh boy. Here we go.
1. Great. As if there wasn't enough negative sentiment towards online poker, now we get to have our sport and pastime actually linked (in a complete bullshit fashion) to a serious and legitimate crime. I've said this before, on a variety of topics, it's always the extreme elements of any group, special interest, whatever that fuck it up for everybody else. Environmentalists, nobody wants dirty water or air, but when you hear about environmentalists you tend to think about groups like Earth Liberation Front burning down a condo project in San Diego or a Hummer dealership in LA. Conversely, mainstream Christians are generally a decent bunch of people. Good, positive attitudes, generally caring about society and those around them, all you hear about is the "religious right" who wants to kill gays and doctors who perform abortions. Or online poker players who rack up so much debt that they rob a bank to try and square up their debts. Go ahead and be an enthusiast about what you do. Just don't let your enthusiasm get the best of you, and cause you to fuck things up for everyone else.
Posted at 12:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by iamhoff