Bad News at Poker Tournament


April 30, 2009

In a shocking turn of events, a Tampa bar was the site of a poke raid last Wednesday night. The Prime Time Sports Grill was raided by police for running illegal poker games out of the restaurant. The owners, Douglas and Sheila Craine, of 16740 Whirley Road are now facing five counts of keeping a gambling house.

The state’s Division of Alcohol Beverages and Tobacco stormed the place, located at 14404 N. Dale Mabry Highway, ejecting those customers who were not involved in the poker playing. They told one group that they had to go and when they said that they had not paid their tab police told them to go and to not worry about it. They said that they had always seen it as a fairly family sort of place and that they were shocked to know that poker was going on.

The police also arrested Trissa Ording, Margaret Mitchell and Brittany Brabeck on gambling charges; all three worked at the restaurant. They also arrested Eric Edington who they say ran the poker tournaments. Police said that poker playing is legal in some places, as long as they are playing for prizes and not for money or alcohol. Unfortunately this location was not abiding by the law.

Local residents were shocked as well – they said that they were in the restaurant when police pulled up and started asking people to leave. Many said that they had never seen a poker game going on at the premises and could not believe that this had been going on all the while.