Poker legend Johnny Chan has been replaced as owner of the Houston poker room by Sanjeev Vora only three weeks after Chan was unable to cash players’ chips.
Anyone seen Johnny Chan around lately? his poker room in Houston locked its doors today, hundreds of thousands in chips can’t get cashed in
hmmmmmm
— Dan Ross (@HoldemMedia_Dan) December 4, 2021
We reported that Johnny Chan’s 88 Social poker room in Houston, Texas shut its door with hundreds of thousands in cash game chips not being cashed.
Chan’s venture into the world of poker rooms indeed turned out to be short-lived as he was replaced as owner only three weeks after the poker room closed its doors.
Sanjeev Vora takes over, rebrands poker room as 101 Poker Club
The soft launch already took place yesterday. The new owner Sanjeev Vora has taken over the poker room rebranded it to 101 Poker Club.
This is great news for the players, since Vora has presented a plan to ensure funds are available to cover and cash all outstanding chips.
Texas Poker Rooms are financed by memberships instead of rake
Due to the legislation in Texas, poker rooms work differently than traditional brick-and-mortar casinos.
The poker clubs are either financed through monthly membership or daily seat fees, instead of charging rake.
The majority of Texas poker clubs is located in shopping malls or business centres instead of hotels.
Risk for poker room operators remains
Sanjeev Vora confirmed that there is always the risk that the State of Texas shut down the poker rooms:
“I am aware of the risk, and anything that you do there is a level of risk involved. So, going in, my management team and I will operate the business in a manner we believe will comply with Texas Law. I have lawyers that are very experienced with the gaming laws of Texas and how we should operate in order to not be clearly in violation of the gaming laws.”
“There’s less energy among politicians to shut this thing down, and more energy to make it work”
Vora is convinced that politicians have no interest in shutting the Texas poker room down as the state is making a lot of money in taxes on them.
“There’s less energy among politicians to shut this thing down, and more energy to make it work.”
As mentioned above the poker room already opened its doors again yesterday. Vora has been affiliating his business with the 101 Poker Club brand, as he’s been a regular at the reputable 101 Poker Club in Katy, Texas.
The two clubs are trying to build a strong partnership based on the reputation and trust in the 101 Poker Club to make sure players funds are safe and that history won’t repeat itself.
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