February 17, 2011 12:33PM 

# Gambling Raid in Baltimore 

By [David Rittgers](https://www.cato.org/people/david-rittgers) 

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The Baltimore police must have solved the city’s [violent crime problem](http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2010/05/fbi_releases_2009_crime_stats.html). They’ve [shifted resources](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-02-16/news/bs-md-co-poker-game-bust-20110216_1_poker-game-illegal-gambling-operation-baltimore-county-police) to illegal gambling:

> Baltimore County police arrested five men after an undercover detective infiltrated an illegal high-stakes poker game in Edgemere, records show.
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> Police say “Texas Hold ‘Em” games were held regularly at the Lynch Point Social Club in the 3100 block of Roger Road, where organizers were making as much as $1,500 in profit a night, according to charging documents.
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> After receiving a tip, officers conducted surveillance at the club and later sent an undercover detective inside, who participated in a game with a $65 buy-in. The detective played for hours — leaving after he lost all his chips, records show.
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> A tactical unit conducted a raid on the club Feb. 11, seizing poker chips, electronic gambling machines and a surveillance system, among other items. Forty-one people were inside at the time of the raid.

Posted at the [Raidmap](https://www.cato.org/raidmap/), where you can find similar “isolated incidents.” A December gambling raid in South Carolina [turned into a gun fight](http://www.wyff4.com/r/25652512/detail.html) when poker players mistook a SWAT team for armed robbers. The family of Sal Culosi, the Virginia optometrist killed in a 2006 gambling raid, just [settled its lawsuit](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/18/AR2011011806145.html) against Fairfax County for $2 million. Radley Balko has more on that tragedy [here](http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/17/justice-for-sal).

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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