The coppers made three poker-room raids last night, complete with machine guns, shields, undercover officers masking their identity and jackhammers.

Initially, I thought this was the influence of teevee. I still think there is something to that, else, why bring along the mediots? I’m also starting to believe what a commenter said here:

In my humble opinion, the driving “force” behind these raids is not the law. It’s the Oklahoma and probably even the Louisianna Poker rooms putting money into some politicians pocket! That’s the real crime.

This is going to do nothing but drive the game farther underground, and therefore make it more dangerous to the cops and to the players. People have been playing organized card games in this city for decades. So why the big push right now to shut them down? Has anyone been hurt? Has anyone’s property been destroyed? Has anyone’s business been jeopardized? The answer is No to the first two, and most likely Yes to the last one. When you can run six tables on a Friday night at one room, and there are five or six different rooms, that’s almost 400 Dallas-area poker players who aren’t going to Oklahoma. I’m not a conspiracy guy…but I am a “follow the money” guy. And what I see here is a sudden, concerted effort to shut down the Dallas poker scene at a time when a) internet pokering has been outlawed, b) poker is a red-hot business plan, c) more people want to play the game than ever before, and d) hey, we’re just an hour away. Very damn fishy. Very.

The kicker here for me is that I was thisclose to heading out to a room last time I was in Big D.