A Pueblo poker room was raided last week by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The poker room has been on law enforcement’s radar for four years and its 63 year old accused proprietor, Larry Lee Wittman, was cited for a misdemeanor - professional gambling.

The raid marked the second time in less than a month that CBI had cited Wittman for operating the game. According to District Attorney Bill Thiebaut, less than 10 players were present during the raid. Each player received misdemeanor gambling tickets.

Law enforcement first became aware of Wittman’s game in October 2004, when masked gunmen had barged in, pistol-whipped card players and stole several thousand dollars in cash at the game venue located at 3102 S. Prairie Ave.

Since then, Wittman’s game was moved to 2309 S. Prairie Ave., the site that was raided last week. Two other suspected illegal poker operations previously were raided by the CBI. The CBI began receiving complaints that Wittman was operating an illegal card room last year, according to a search warrant affidavit by CBI agent Timothy Martinez and in July 2008, a confidential informant wearing a wire attended two card games at Wittman’s establishment, known as Larry’s All In Poker Club.

On both occasions, Larry’s All charged a $5-an-hour which is known in poker as a “rake” and is illegal in Colorado, except at where casinos own a license to charge rakes. Yet another criteria for illegal gambling in the state is that those who charge rakes do not socialize outside of gambling and Whitman had previously admitted to a player that he did not socialize with his gamblers.

Wittman also admitted to loaning money to players at the table, putting on a dice game and using proceeds of the gambling operation to pay his bills, although he denied “pocketing” any funds. Therein, he further implicated himself for illegal gambling.

On Aug. 21, a confidential informant played at his card room and paid a rake whilst observing a slot machine in the building, which is illegal. On that basis, the CBI raided Wittman - both Wittman and his players all received summonses to appear in court.