For those unaware, Pops Poker is a poker hall of questionable legality in /r/BonAir that is not shut down because the owner is connected to the state "Bingo" board and they hire offduty RVA police for security.

https://richmondfreepress.com/news/2021/nov/18/legal-or-not/

If only we had a casino that we could tax the revenue from. But I’m so glad we saved everyone from themselves by voting it down. We wouldn’t want any gambling happening here.

A little more on Lessin's conflict of interest:

https://www.nbc12.com/2021/10/02/after-poker-disaster-watchdog-suggests-stripping-va-charitable-gaming-board-some-powers/

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/09/28/virginia-doesnt-have-licensed-poker-rooms-a-state-gambling-board-chairman-opened-one-anyway/

LOL!

I had no idea on any of this. I just recently came across pops about 2 months ago. I haven’t played live in a long time. Didn’t want to drive to MGM and drop $$$ without getting the feel for live again. Thanks for the info though

Just to be clear, I have no issue with anyone playing poker for money (it's not personally my thing so I cannot tell you any answers to your questions), this place is just quite controversial as you can see by the articles. It's also not a topic that's really been discussed on this subreddit before, so I thought it interesting to discuss.

Not trying to dissuade you from going.

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I really think the terrible outcome of the football training facility deal factored into people's votes against that. Regardless that one deal was nothing like the other people just vote against anything supported by the city.

Thanks for the info!!

The vast majority of a casino's revenue, somewhere between 80 and 90%, comes from slot machines that are designed from the ground up to abuse human psychology and create addiction.

We could legalize crack and put a taxable crack house in every neighborhood too. The business model is the same, go in with money and hope you leave with money - and yet, I don't see a lot of crack house advocates.

I didn’t take offense to anything, so no worries. I did see on their website about some law being passed or something I honestly really didn’t read. But that’s all I knew. So the articles were informative.

I always see the billboard on midlo tnpk but I don’t understand gambling in Richmond. Same for Rosie’s, what the hell is that place anyways? And what’s with the skill games at gas stations? Is it like slot machines and if so how do people get paid? All these dumb questions and so little time!

I’m originally from the eastern shore of MD. When I first moved here, I went for about 5 years straight. About 2 times a year. Talked to so many people who lived here and were Washington fans but never went. Went until my kids didn’t have fun anymore. So I was truly grateful for it.

I’m not sure, but I think Rosie’s only has electronic games. As in slot machines, video poker, video blackjack are all machines. “Table games”, craps, blackjack, and Texas Holden poker are table games. And many others. With real dealers and cards. I might be old school or paranoid, but I like real people with real cards.

The games at gas stations are like slot machines or video poker. Don’t really know. I don’t play those type of games.

> [W]hat’s with the skill games at gas stations? Is it like slot machines and if so how do people get paid?

Not an expert but I believe they differ slightly from slot machines and must by law. I believe there was a first round of machines that were more slot machine like and you pushed a button and you won and lost and those are now illegal. The new machines, as I understand it, require two button presses and must require some "skill" to make it a "skill game" and not "a random press game." (They are still mostly random and hew to a fairly homogenized set out of outcomes, as I understand it.) I think from what I've seen at my local corner store (Clay St Market), small payouts the store pays like lotto and if you actually win a ton you get a ticket to redeem from the manufacturer but how one does that I do not know.

I'm totally in favor of the legalization of cocaine and the taxation thereof. So is The Economist.

> I really think the terrible outcome of the football training facility deal factored into people's votes against that.

I agree with you on this. Dwight Jones had so many straight up boondoggles where he gave away parts of the city to developers and "Richmond" got nothing back (Dominion Energy Center, WFT Training Camp, etc) that people were, and still are, very reticent to see any major development approved by the time Stoney got into office, through no real fault of Stoney. I think this poisoned his Navy Hill plans as well. He inherited a very bad climate for trying to get a signature redevelopment project through, gambling-concerns aside.

Hey, at least you're consistent! In general I'm against criminalizing drugs (or gambling) but also against deliberately exploitative business models that vacuum up money from a community and concentrate it in the hands of a few people who don't live there. Things like casinos, crack houses, payday loans, megachurches, just don't have a place in a well-functioning society.

I would just say the legalized cocaine != crack houses the same way the end of prohibition did not mean every single neighborhood has a house selling cheap bathtub gin with people passing out in the yard. Regulations can still exist (like we have with tobacco or alcohol), I'm not suggesting we let heroin users tie off on school playgrounds with no interventions like some libertarian fever dream.