Virginia Beach poker room shuts down again … temporarily

The Beach Poker Room in Virginia Beach, a facility that’s drawn heightened attention to the state’s confusing laws on charitable gaming, has temporarily closed its doors again, according to a Facebook announcement last week.

On Oct. 4, the facility said it was closing “due to many unfortunate circumstances” without elaborating on what exactly led to the decision.

“We are all very grateful for the support you have shown us over these past few years,” the post read. “Now we ask you to stay in contact as we work towards a solution, continuing our path to create a fun and safe environment for the 757 poker community.”

Though state-sanctioned poker will be played in the casinos opening up in Virginia, the future of standalone charity poker operations is less certain. The General Assembly legalized charitable Texas Hold ’em poker tournaments in 2020, but state officials have been at odds with the industry over how poker events should be run and regulated.

That dispute led to the opening of several unlicensed charitable poker rooms, but those operations largely shut down this summer after legislators threatened them with fines of up to $50,000 per violation.

The Beach Poker Room seemed to be an exception, but neither the facility nor state regulators have explained the legality of how the poker room was able to operate after those fines went into effect. The facility did not respond to an emailed request for comment Monday.

There don’t appear to have been any threats from state and local law enforcement, and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates charitable gaming, refused to comment on whether it took any enforcement action prior to the Beach Poker Room announcing its closure.

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, who has advocated for charity poker and was involved in a recent lawsuit seeking to stop the new fines from taking effect, also declined to comment.

VDACS is currently creating a new regulatory and licensing structure for charity poker, but it’s unclear if those rules will allow full-time poker rooms to operate the way they previously did.

by Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury

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