Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) agents raided a “mini-casino” in Benson, North Carolina, arresting 71 people on gambling-related charges. Among those arrested were well-known poker pros Maciek ‘Michael’ Gracz and Christopher Bell. ALE agents seized over $70,000 from the players present, along with poker tables, craps and blackjack tables, a roulette wheel, computer equipment and flat-screen TV monitors. The ‘mini-casino’ was found in a single-story building, which was fully-equipped like a casino complete even with a huge kitchen.
“It was a fairly large operation for North Carolina,” said Ron Kaylor, ALE’s Deputy Director of Operations.

60 players were issued misdemeanor citations for engaging in a game of chance, including Maciek Gracz. Gracz had been arrested and cited once before in a similar raid in December 2004. Christopher Bell, on the other hand, was among those listed in the complaint as being connected to the operation of the facility and may face more serious charges.

In addition to the misdemeanor gambling citation, the affidavit also listed, for Bell, charges of “operating a game of chance” and “allowing possession of gaming tables.” The listed owner of the building, Marvin ‘Ray’ Johnson, faces other charges, as do nine other people listed in the complaint, eight of whom are believed to be the game’s dealers. The ninth, Jody McClure Garaventa, was listed as an operator of the ‘casino’ along with Bell and Johnson.

Bell and Gracz are both successful poker players and have some impressive wins in poker tournaments. Bell has a 2005 Trump Classic win and three major final tables (two WPT, one WSOP), while Gracz won both the PartyPoker Million IV and a $1,000 NLHE WSOP bracelet in 2005, and has netted over $2.8 million in career poker winnings.
“They could go catch sexual predators or something that has a real impact on society,” said Gracz, according to the AP piece.”If they had gotten two guys to come there, they could have asked us to leave the premises and we would have left.”

Micaek Gracz writes a column about poker tips for the CBS Sportsline Internet site. He is also a member of the Hendon Mob and is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Casino Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Maciek Gracz, Poker Industry News, Poker News Archive, Poker Players, Poker Tips & Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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