Two men were arrested last Wednesday in Weston, Florida for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation. Michael Kieran McGuinness, 60, and Daniel Frederick Husley, 38 were led out of the Smoke on the Water Cigar Bar in zip-tie cuffs in the midst of what appeared to be a poker event.
The arrests were the result of a week-long investigation by the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) Crime Suppression Team, during which undercover officers were in the cigar bar, gathering evidence of wrongdoing. The BSO apparently wanted to make a show of it, too, as local news cameras were right next to the officers as they cuffed McGuiness and Husley and led them out of the venue.
Outside, a cuffed McGuiness stopped briefly to speak with the television cameras, saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong. To be taken out and embarrassed in front of all of these people…I will sue the county.”
He added, “I work for Bar Poker Pros, a charity company. They’re charity games.”
“So you’re going to jail for charity?” one reporter asked.
“I don’t know why I’m going to jail. I didn’t do anything.”
Husley is reportedly a co-owner of the Smoke on the Water Cigar Bar.
The Bar Poker Pros website bills the organization as “South Florida’s Largest Free Bar Poker Company.” While the website isn’t working properly and thus not displaying all the pertinent information, there is a section regarding “Charity Poker.” It appears to be your typical bar poker event host that charges restaurants and bars a fee to run a poker night. Players are not required to pay an entry fee and can earn points based on how they do in the tournament. Nothing is posted on the site about prizes, but the way these things usually work is that at the end of some set period of time, the players with the most points win something.
The venues like these poker events because they bring customers into the establishment, usually on slow days. Players are not usually required to pay any sort of fee, but the bar benefits because players do typically buy food and drink.
The BSO, though, claims that whatever was going on was illegal. “They have no licensing for a card room. Nothing legal about what they were doing,” an unidentified, presumably undercover officer told WPLG news.
BSO Crime Suppression Team’s Detective Bradley said, “There are many hours put into an investigation like this. A lot of surveillance and tonight would obviously be the climax to this operation.”
McGuiness and Husley were charged with “keeping a gambling house,” which falls under Chapter 849 of the Florida Statutes. It is a third-degree felony. The Sun Sentinel reports that Husley’s arrest warrant “accuses him of unlawfully exercising control or maintaining a gambling table or room…for the purpose of gaming or gambling…in a place where he had control or management,” which is all part of the “keeping a gambling house” statute.
The two men were released from a Broward County jail on Thursday on bond.
