MILL CREEK — It was a poker game: a deck of cards, a set of Costco poker chips, a $20 buy-in and a group of buddies.
“This isn’t something you would think is wrong,” said Stephen Anton Dorn, 32, the owner of the Jet Bar &Grill in Mill Creek. “This is playing cards with your friends.”
Snohomish County prosecutors allege the poker game, dealt around a table at Dorn’s restaurant, violated state gambling laws.
In December, police raided his business, broke up a poker game and took Dorn away in handcuffs. He spent the night behind bars.
Dorn was charged Jan. 10 with conducting a gambling activity without a license, a felony. Snohomish County prosecutors have offered Dorn a way to avoid jail time if agrees to plead guilty to a gross misdemeanor, a lesser charge.
“I had no idea that playing cards with my friends could ever get me in trouble,” Dorn said.
Dorn said he figured playing at the restaurant was just like playing at his home. The difference, he said, was that at his home, his friends would clean out his refrigerator of food and beer.
Gambling in Washington is tightly regulated and the laws strictly enforced, officials said.
The bottom line: Card games at a business must be licensed, said Susan Arland, a spokeswoman for the state gambling commission. Dorn was warned to stop the games, but he continued anyway, she said.
“Do we have better things to do? Yes, but he ignored a specific warning,” Arland said. “We can’t just turn our back on illegal gambling activity.”
Nearly two years ago, Washington State Gambling Commission special agents said they told Dorn that running a poker game without a gambling license was illegal, according to a search warrant filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.
Agents were alerted to Dorn’s Monday night games by an anonymous tip in February 2006. They went to Dorn’s business, then called the Jet Deck Bar and Grill at Paine Field, to look into reports of an illegal poker game.
After twice watching Dorn deal Texas Hold ‘Em games at the restaurant, agents called Dorn, the court documents said.
“Normally when somebody is doing something illegal, a lot of times people don’t know,” Arland said. The commission’s policy is to educate violators about the law. “We let him know what he was doing was wrong.”
In an April 3, 2006, phone call, an agent explained to Dorn that the poker game was illegal, the documents said. In order to run a poker game at the bar, Dorn would first have to receive permission from his landlord, the agent explained. If Dorn received the OK, then he’d be required to obtain a gambling license from the commission.
“Dorn seemed to understand if he continued to play poker at the Jet Deck what the results would be, arrest and felony charges,” the agent wrote in a report, the documents said.
Dorn doesn’t remember the phone call that way, he said.
“I don’t remember anything about arrest,” Dorn said. “It was like the most casual, cool conversation.”
If someone had told him to stop playing the game, he would have complied, he said.
Six months later, an agent went back to the Jet Deck and saw a poker game being played, the documents said.
Another year went by. Dorn moved his business to a larger location on 164th Street SE in Mill Creek.
Dorn allegedly was dealing a poker game in late November when undercover agents again paid him a visit, the documents said.
Two weeks later, gambling commission agents and Mill Creek police stormed the restaurant, blocking the exits and forcing customers to leave without paying their tabs, Dorn said. Cooks had to abandon burgers cooking on the stove, he said.
“It was like a ‘Punk’d’ episode,” Dorn said, referring to a TV show about practical jokes. He said he was expecting hidden cameras, that the whole thing would turn out to be a joke. Instead he was taken away in handcuffs.
After the arrest, Dorn told agents, “I knew I needed to get the license, but we moved locations and I had a lot going on,” according to the agent’s report.
In a written statement, Dorn admitted playing the game and said he had planned to get a permit.
“I had no idea of the severity of the friends game we play each week or its consequences,” he wrote. “I was under the impression that a game with no ‘rake’ for the business was OK. I’m now finding this was my misunderstanding and the small permit should not have been forgotten.”
Had he applied, Dorn still would not have been able to get a permit, Arland said. Mill Creek city ordinances ban card games within the city limits.
Dorn said his business, a popular spot where local “American Idol” star Blake Lewis is known to sing in unannounced gigs, has suffered from the publicity around his arrest. From where he’s sitting, the card games were a small thing, triggering just one phone call from regulators two years ago. Police resources could be better spent on violent crimes instead of busting up a card game, he said.
The gambling commission estimates it spent about $4,000 investigating Dorn.
Now, the pub owner is faced with a decision about how to play his cards.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Chris Dickinson said he has offered to reduce Dorn’s felony charge to a gross misdemeanor if Dorn pleads guilty, pays a fine and agrees to stay under court supervision for two years.
If Dorn refuses, Dickinson said he intends to pursue a felony prosecution in Snohomish County Superior Court.
Dorn said he hasn’t decided if he’ll fold.
“Is it worth it to pay my lawyer and face a charge? Or is it worth it take the charge and just walk away?” he asked.
Dorn is scheduled to appear in the Everett division of Snohomish County District Court on Feb. 6.
Herald writer Jim Haley contributed to this report.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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