Poker Rooms New York City
| Born | April 21, 1978 (age 42) Loveland, Colorado, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, speaker, author |
| Molly's Game | |
| Parent(s) | Larry Bloom |
| Relatives | Jeremy Bloom (brother) Colby Cohen (cousin) |
NYC Poker Clubs is your concierge to high-end professional poker games throughout New York City. We host and promote our own safe and private games as well as various other open poker games throughout Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
- New York was certainly affected by this, meaning that players who did manage to register at a poker room from within the state couldn’t successfully make a deposit most of the time. Banks simply wouldn’t allow such transactions to go through in accordance with the UIGEA rules.
- All the casino poker rooms in New York are smoke-free. New York law requires commercial casinos – Tioga Downs, del Lago, Rivers and Resorts World Catskills – to be smoke-free throughout. Tribal casinos are allowed to have smoking areas inside the buildings.
- New York card rooms New York is home to tribal casinos and commercial casinos, with live poker rooms found in each. The first tribal casino opened in 1993, the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. It continues to feature one of the biggest and most popular poker rooms in the state.
- Answer 1 of 10: Hey all, Does anyone know of a card room in manhattan? I will be visiting in Feb. And am interested in playing some cards while in town.
Molly Bloom (born April 21, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, speaker,[1]author of the 2014 memoir Molly's Game. She had trained for years to become an Olympicskier, but was injured while trying to qualify for the Olympics.
In April 2013, she was charged with running a high-stakes poker game that originated in the Viper Room in Los Angeles, which attracted wealthy people, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities.[2] In May 2014, after pleading guilty to reduced charges, she was sentenced to one year of probation, a $1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service.[3] In addition, she was required to forfeit $125,000 in earnings from the games she operated.[3]
A film adaptation of her book, Molly's Game, starring Jessica Chastain and directed by Aaron Sorkin, debuted in December 2017.[4]
Early life[edit]
Bloom was born on April 21, 1978, and grew up in Loveland, Colorado. Her father, Larry Bloom, is a clinical psychologist and a professor at Colorado State University.[5] Her mother, Char, was a ski and snowboard instructor and a professional fly-fisher with her own line of clothing.[6] Bloom's father is Jewish and her mother is Christian.[7] Her brothers are Jordan Bloom, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Jeremy Bloom, who was an American Olympic skier and professional American football player with the Philadelphia Eagles.[8] She was a competitive skier and at one time ranked third in Nor-Am Cup for women's moguls skiers; she later suffered an injury while trying to qualify for the Olympics.[9] She attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.[10]
Poker game[edit]
In 2004, Bloom moved to Los Angeles and found work as a barmaid. In 2004, Darin Feinstein, one of the co-owners of The Viper Room nightclub, was approached by actor Tobey Maguire about hosting a high-stakes poker game in the basement of the club. Feinstein recruited Bloom to cater to the players and manage the game. In 2007, Bloom started her own business, registering Molly Bloom Inc. as an event and catering company to host poker tournaments.[11] By 2008, the games had graduated to private homes and hotels like the Peninsula Beverly Hills, with hands going as high as $4 million.[12] In addition to Maguire, many wealthy individuals, celebrities and sports figures were known to frequent the games including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Gores, Macaulay Culkin, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Alex Rodriguez, Nelly, Mary Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Phil Ivey, Rick Salomon and Andy Beal.[13][14][15] The onset of the 2008 recession made underground poker games less common, and in 2009, Bloom moved to an Upper West Side high-rise near Manhattan's Lincoln Center. She began organizing games in a private apartment at the new Astor Place and suites at the Plaza Hotel, which used the same sophisticated dealing equipment used in casinos, and which were staffed by women hired from 1 Oak, an exclusive nightclub. However, Bloom had fewer contacts in New York, where raids on underground games prompted them to relocate to Long Island. As a result of this, Bloom attracted rich businessmen from Wall Street but also more disreputable gamblers whose bids were significantly smaller than those in Los Angeles. In June 2010, Bloom was served with a $116,133 tax lien for failing to pay appropriate taxes on her New York events.[13]
Arrest and sentencing[edit]
In 2011, one of Bloom's games in Los Angeles was shut down as part of a bankruptcy investigation into a Ponzi scheme run by Bradley Ruderman, one of the players.[16] Bloom, who had received money from Ruderman as part of the game, was accused of receiving $473,000 from Ruderman's bank to settle his debts and sued by the bankruptcy trustee for $473,200, but she denied that she was involved in organizing illegal gambling.[16] Bank records showed 19 transfers to Bloom in 2007 and 2008 for amounts up to $57,500.[13]
On April 16, 2013, Bloom was arrested and charged along with 33 others as part of a $100 million money laundering and illegal sports gambling operation.[2]Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged 12 people with racketeering. Others were charged with money laundering, extortion, fraud and operating illegal poker rooms in New York City. Bloom, who was 34 at the time, faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, six years of supervised release, a fine of $1.5 million or twice the amount gained from the crimes or twice the amount lost by victims, and a $200 special assessment.[17][18]
In May 2014, Bloom pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to one year of probation and 200 hours of community service.[19] At the sentencing, Bloom's lawyer, Jim Walden, told the court that Bloom was in severe debt which included forfeiting $125,000 in poker proceeds as part of the plea.[3] He stated that Bloom had 'been ordered into the gambling business' by her boss at a Los Angeles real estate company,[3] then went on to create her own illegal poker game in New York in 2009.[3]
Book and film[edit]
Bloom's memoir about her experiences, Molly's Game, was published in 2014.[20]
A film adaptation of the book, also called Molly's Game, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8, 2017.[21]Jessica Chastain plays the role of Molly Bloom.[22] The film received a 2018 Academy Award nomination in the category Best Adapted Screenplay.[23]
References[edit]
- ^'How to Create An Authentic Customer Experience, According to Poker Entrepreneur Molly Bloom - Business101.com'. Business101.com. 2018-06-19. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
- ^ abNancy Dillon; Robert Gearty; Daniel Beekman (April 17, 2013). 'Feds take down high-stakes poker, sports booking ring used by A-list celebs, Wall Street fat cats'. New York Daily News. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^ abcdeGregorian, Dareh (May 2, 2014). 'So-called 'Poker Princess,' implicated in $100 million gambling ring, ducks jail time, gets probation'. Daily News. New York, NY.
- ^Ray Rahman (August 14, 2017). 'Aaron Sorkin on Directing His First Movie With 'Molly's Game''. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Nate Day (March 8, 2017). 'New book-to-movie adaptation has connection to daughter of CSU faculty'. Rocky Mountain Collegian. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Charlie Meyers (February 25, 2006). 'Bloom to appear at sports show'. The Denver Post. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Bloom, Nate (November 22, 2017). 'Hollywood's Celebrity Jews - Movies and more'. The Detroit Jewish News. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^Pullen, John Patrick (March 2013). 'World-Champion Skier Jeremy Bloom's Unconventional Path to Entrepreneurship'. Entrepreneur. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^'Molly Bloom – Cup Standings'. FIS-ski.com. International Ski Federation. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^John Wenzel (August 27, 2014). 'Molly Bloom's 'Game' reveals stacked deck of ambition, drama in world of high-stakes poker'. The Denver Post. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Robert Kolker (June 30, 2013). 'Manhattan Fold 'Em'. New York Magazine. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Seth Abramovitch (September 10, 2017). 'Hollywood Flashback: In 2008, Molly Bloom Was Tinseltown's Poker Queen'. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^ abcHaddon, Heather (July 10, 2011). 'The queen of secret celeb poker'. New York Post. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Italiano, Laura (2018-01-03). 'How the underground 'Poker Princess' managed to school Hollywood bigs'. New York Post. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ^LandShark (2013-08-08). 'Hollywood's Elite Exposed in Gambling Crackdown, Guilty Plea Entered - PocketFives'. PocketFives. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ^ abDuke, Alan (June 23, 2011). 'Celebs play high-stakes poker in Beverly Hills hotels, lawsuits say'. CNN. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^'Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges 34 Members and Associates of Two Russian-American Organized Crime Enterprises with Operating International Sportsbooks That Laundered More Than $100 Million'. FBI (Press release). April 16, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Santora, Marc; Rashbaum, William K. (April 16, 2013). 'Agents Raid Gallery in Carlyle Hotel in Gambling Probe'. The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Rich Calder (May 3, 2014). ''Poker princess' gets probation for role in $100M gambling ring'. New York Post. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Bloom, Molly (June 24, 2014). 'Her House of Cards'. Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^Debruge, Peter (September 9, 2017). 'Film Review: 'Molly's Game''. Variety. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^''Molly's Game': Film Review TIFF 2017'. The Hollywood Reporter. September 8, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
- ^'Oscar Nominees Writing Adapted Screenplay Nominee'. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
External links[edit]
- Molly Bloom on IMDb
The state of New York has long been associated with poker, dating back to several nationally known 19th-century poker clubs. It extends through the 20th and 21st centuries and the famed underground games, such as at the Mayfair Club, which the Chesterfield in Rounders was based off.
When it comes to legal poker in New York, the history is not quite as long or colorful, although several poker rooms are popular among players in the state’s tribal and commercial casinos.
Meanwhile, legal, real money poker has yet to come to NY despite the efforts of lawmakers over recent years.
What follows is an overview of NY poker, including the state’s history, sweepstakes online poker sites and offshore sites. Furthermore, we review current New York poker laws and their relevance to home games, a list of card rooms in the state and a look ahead at poker in the Empire State.
Global Poker offers online poker in New York
Is online poker legal in New York?
No, not at present, although NY lawmakers continue to work toward that possibility.
NY online poker is hampered by current law that includes poker among its list of prohibited games of chance. The state’s constitution only allows a few exceptions for poker, including at regulated commercial casinos. Meanwhile, Native American-owned casinos can also spread live poker if they wish, per the applicable nation or Tribal Gaming Agency.
In early 2020, a bill was introduced in the state Senate that would remove poker from the list of prohibited games while authorizing up to 11 online poker licenses to operators. A similar bill was introduced in the State Assembly as well. In both cases, the bills failed to advance beyond committees the year before.
These are the latest among several attempts to legalize online poker in New York, ranging back to 2013.
Will New York regulate online poker?
If recent history provides any indication, chances are not great that real money online poker will be legalized and regulated in New York in the near future.
Previous online poker bills that have been introduced have failed to garner adequate support to advance through the legislative process. Meanwhile, online sports betting has gotten much more attention among lawmakers lately thanks in part to gambling laws in neighboring states. New Jersey and Pennsylvania have launched online poker sites, casinos and sportsbooks.
If online poker were to become legal, the New York State Gaming Commission would be the governing body drafting regulations, issuing licenses and overseeing the integrity of online poker in New York.
What are sweepstakes poker sites?
In the absence of real money NY poker sites, there aresweepstakes poker sites that currently welcome players in New York. The most popular of these sites is Global Poker, where players from every US state except Washington can play.
Sweepstakes sites use virtual currencies rather than real money. Global Poker uses Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins.
Players can purchase Gold Coins to play “cash” games and tournaments. When they buy Gold Coins, they receive Sweeps Coins as a bonus. Sweeps Coins can be obtained in other ways as well, including via Facebook giveaways and even by writing to Global Poker directly.
Furthermore, players can use Sweeps Coins for sweepstakes-style cash games and tournaments. Players can win and accumulate more of them. Then, once they have collected a minimum required amount, players can redeem Sweeps Coins for real money and withdraw the cash.
What about offshore poker sites? Are they safe?
There are online poker sites located outside the US — hence called “offshore” sites — that do accept US players. While New Yorkers don’t necessarily face legal obstacles to play on such sites themselves, they are, nonetheless, taking a risk when they do.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 restricts US banks and other financial service providers from allowing transactions with non-US gambling sites. That means rogue poker sites are forced to find other means via which to allow American players the ability to deposit and withdraw funds.
If that isn’t problematic enough, American players have to take a leap of faith when it comes to game integrity and the safety of their funds. There have been incidents of these sites suddenly closing and making off with players’ money, leaving Americans no legal recourse to recover their funds.
Also, if players suspect they have been victimized by cheating, collusion, ghosting, multi-accounting, or other types of fraud, they generally have to hope the sites respond to their complaints. Since again, they have no legal recourse to ensure they are protected.
Playing on a fully legal, licensed and regulated real money site is much more preferable. To be able to offer the games, operators must comply with rules to monitor and prohibit fraudulent activity, thus making the sites much safer for online poker players.
New York poker laws
The New York Penal Code explicitly prohibits gambling, defined as staking or risking “something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance” or some other event not under a person’s control and doing so with “an agreement or understanding that he will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.”
That prohibition includes types of gambling in which skill plays a part, too.
The way the law is written, “contests of chance” involve any game that “depends in a material degree upon an element of chance, notwithstanding that skill of the contestants might also be a factor therein.”
There are exceptions, foremost among them playing in the state lottery or gambling at a facility licensed by the New York State Gaming Commission, such as at the state’s commercial casinos. Also allowed are horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering operations, authorized video lottery terminal operators, and Class 3 Indian gaming facilities.
Are home poker games legal in New York?
As is the case in many other states, home poker games are allowed in New York as long as no one is collecting rake or fees.
The relevant part of the New York Penal Code describes such a game as “a social game of chance… without fee or remuneration.”
There was a notable court case involving a home poker game in New York in 2011.
Lawrence DiCristina was hosting poker games out of a warehouse in Staten Island. DiCristina collected 5% rake in the game, which in and of itself, would run afoul of what the law says about hosting a “social game of chance.” However, DiCristina was found guilty of violating federal law, the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA).
The case was appealed, and in 2012, the conviction was overturned in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Interestingly, on appeal, the US District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein ruled that Texas Hold’em was, in fact, a game of skill and thus not prohibited by the IGBA.
That ruling was reversed by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals. DiCristina tried to appeal again, but in February 2014, the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Nevertheless, the most recent attempts to introduce online poker legislation have included mention of the DiCristina case, in particular Judge Weinstein’s ruling that poker is considered distinct from other gambling games thanks to its skill component.
New York card rooms
New York is home to tribal casinos and commercial casinos, with live poker rooms found in each.
The first tribal casino opened in 1993, the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. It continues to feature one of the biggest and most popular poker rooms in the state.
In 2013, commercial casinos were legalized and among them can be found some popular poker rooms as well, such as at Rivers Casino in Schenectady and Resorts World Catskills in Monticello.
No-limit hold’em is the primary game at all New York poker rooms, although the larger ones also spread pot-limit Omaha and stud games.
Meanwhile, both the Rivers Casino and the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel have hosted popular poker tournaments in recent years as well.
List of NY poker rooms
Here’s a list of live card rooms that players can find in New York casinos:
| POKER ROOM | ADDRESS | TABLES |
|---|---|---|
| Akwesasne Mohawk Casino | 873 State Route 37, Hogansburg, NY 13655 | 5 |
| Del Lago Resort and Casino | 1133 Route 414, Waterloo, NY 13165 | 14 |
| Resorts World Catskills | 888 Resorts World Dr., Monticello, NY 12701 | 19 |
| Rivers Casino & Resort at Mohawk Harbor | 1 Rush St., Schenectady, NY 12308 | 16 |
| Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino | 310 Fourth St., Niagara Falls, NY 14303 | 23 |
| Seneca Salamanca Casino | 768 Broad St., Salamanca, NY 14779 | 8 |
| Tioga Downs Casino | 2384 W. River Rd., Nichols, NY 13812 | 6 |
| Turning Stone Casino | 5218 Patrick Rd., Verona, NY 13478 | 32 |
Also, there are poker rooms in two casinos just across the Canadian border on the other side of Niagara Falls: Casino Niagara (with 26 tables) and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort (with 16 tables).
New York poker timeline
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stories of poker games occurring in the underground poker clubs in New York City were frequently reported on in newspapers and given literary treatments by fiction writers.
Following World War I, one of the most famous poker clubs in the country regularly met at the Algonquin Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The Thanatopsis Pleasure and Inside Straight Club comprised many of the era’s most famous writers, actors, poets, playwrights, columnists and critics who kept the games going until the early 1930s.
As far as other types of gambling were concerned, New York first legalized and then banned pari-mutuel wagering before bringing it back again in 1940. Horse racing and off-track betting have been an important industry in the state ever since.
Meanwhile, after being the first US state to ban the lottery in the 1830s, New York was the second to bring it back in 1967.
Poker continued to be played, however, with regular underground games taking place in a variety of locations, such as bars and restaurants, office suites, high-rise condos, self-storage units, social clubs, private homes, and even in churches and synagogues.
Some of the Hungarian restaurants where such games took place were commonly referred to as “goulash joints” or “ghoulies.”
Despite their necessarily clandestine nature, a few of these poker clubs gained renown outside of New York City. This includes the Mayfair Club that began as a bridge club in the 1940s, then later became the site of high-stakes backgammon, gin rummy and poker games.
Famous poker players who passed through the Mayfair during the century’s later decades included Stu Ungar, Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer and Mickey Appleman, to name a few. Band manager and music producer Brian Koppelman played there as well, and later with David Levien would use that experience as inspiration to write the screenplay for the 1998 film Rounders.
Clubs, like the Mayfair, began to be shut down, however, in 2000, thanks to then-Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s “Quality of Life” campaign to clean up New York City.
Games persisted nonetheless, with clubs reappearing in the 2000s and afterward, in particular during the “poker boom” when the game found new popularity on television and online.
In 1993, the state signed a compact with the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, resulting in the opening of the state’s first land-based casino, the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona, which featured a large and popular poker room. Eventually, other Native American-owned casinos opened as well.
In 2013, voters in the stated supported the New York Casino Gambling Amendment authorizing a limited number of commercial casinos to open in areas of the state other than New York City.
While the overall number of casinos in New York are small, many of them do provide live and legal poker to New Yorkers not wishing to brave the underground games.
As far as online poker is concerned, State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow have each introduced multiple online poker bills over recent years, though none has gained needed support. Thus New York remains without legal, real money poker sites, unlike its neighbors, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to the south.
Poker Room New York City
What does the future hold for New York online poker?
For online poker to become legal in NY, it will likely be necessary first for other forms of online gambling or online casinos to be legalized, in particular, NY online sports betting.
New York City Poker Rooms
In early 2020, some momentum was starting to build around an online sports betting bill. However, the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the disease’s profound impact on New York state, including economically, understandably made the pursuit of such legislation a much lower priority among lawmakers as the state grappled with budgetary matters and other more urgent concerns.
Poker Rooms In New York City
With the country’s fourth-largest population of more than 19 million, New York would be a great candidate for online poker, given what would surely be a significant player pool. It would be especially good for online poker in the US if the state were to legalize online poker and join the multi-state compact to increase liquidity.