A Williamson County grand jury has declined to indict the Lodge Card Club’s three majority owners on illegal gambling and organised crime charges. The no-bill, returned on April 28, 2026, ends the criminal case that began with the March 10 TABC raid on Texas’s largest poker room.

Lodge co-owner and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Doug Polk confirmed the outcome on X within hours. He announced plans to reopen the Round Rock facility within two to three weeks, though the logistical challenge of rehiring roughly 200 laid-off staff remains.

The decision caps a brutal seven-week ordeal. It included a leaked 22-page search warrant, mass layoffs, and the seizure of more than $2 million in assets. Money laundering, the lead allegation that drove March’s headlines, was quietly abandoned by prosecutors before the case ever reached a jury.

Grand Jury Returns No-Bill on Lodge Card Club

The grand jury convened to consider felony and misdemeanour charges against three majority shareholders: Doug Polk, Jake Abdalla, and Jason Levin. Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, Nik Airball, and Ethan “Rampage” Yau were not named as targets. All four are minority investors.

Under Texas law, at least nine of twelve grand jurors must vote to indict. Fewer than nine did so, resulting in a no-bill.

The Lodge sent a representative to present arguments under Texas’s closed grand jury rules. Defence attorneys and media were excluded from the proceedings.

What the No-Bill Does and Does Not Settle

The criminal threat is over for now, but this is not a full dismissal. A no-bill can theoretically be re-presented within the statute of limitations if new evidence surfaces. In practice, that almost never happens after a grand jury has already reviewed the case.

The bigger unresolved issue is the civil forfeiture. On April 8, one day before the 30-day statutory deadline, TABC lead agent Douglas Bell filed a nine-page civil asset forfeiture petition in the 480th Judicial District Court of Williamson County.

That filing rests solely on alleged violations of Texas Penal Code sections 47.03 and 47.04: keeping a gambling place, a Class A misdemeanour. It explicitly omitted money laundering.

The seized assets break down as follows: roughly $1.35 million in cash taken from the premises, a $435,000 IRS refund cheque found during the raid, and approximately $721,000 frozen from Tempus Holding Inc. bank accounts.

The Lodge’s legal team has 20 days from service to file a Verified Answer contesting the forfeiture. Failure to respond would trigger a default judgment.

Lodge Card Club Plans to Reopen Within Weeks

Polk’s immediate priority is getting the doors open again. He stated on X that the target is two to three weeks from the no-bill date, which would put the reopening in mid-to-late May 2026.

The main obstacle is staffing. Co-owner Jason Levin laid off the entire workforce on March 24, citing a communication from the Williamson County District Attorney’s office that the club’s business model did not comply with Texas law. Roughly 200 employees lost their jobs.

The Lodge’s separately incorporated San Antonio location has stayed open throughout the shutdown. Polk has cited this as evidence that the action was targeted at the Round Rock operation specifically, not at the Lodge brand as a whole.

How the Case Collapsed From Five Felonies to a Misdemeanour

The original March 10 search warrant contemplated five charges: organised criminal activity, money laundering, promotion of gambling, keeping a gambling place, and possession of a gambling device. Every felony-level allegation has now been dropped.

The warrant, obtained by media outlets on March 17, alleged $1.35 million in suspicious cash deposits routed through a collection centre during January and February 2025. Undercover agents had played $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em at the Lodge at least six times between April 2025 and January 2026.

Polk addressed the warrant in his video addressing the April 9 deadline. He framed the money laundering allegation as circular: if the state considers the gambling illegal, every associated wire transfer becomes money laundering by definition.

He described the flagged transfers as a player safety measure designed to prevent customers from carrying large amounts of cash.

The state’s remaining civil theory argues that the Lodge derived an economic benefit from gambling by selling food, drinks, merchandise, and streaming poker play. That is a narrower and weaker claim than money laundering, and the grand jury’s refusal to indict on even the gambling charge significantly undermines it.

What This Means for Texas Poker Rooms

No other Texas card room has been raided since March 10. Roughly 80 rooms continue to operate under the same seat-fee model. The most striking contrast came on April 23, when Texas Card House Austin hosted the first-ever WSOP Circuit stop in Texas history, an 18-event series held in the same Williamson County jurisdiction.

Governor Greg Abbott told reporters on March 31 that gambling is unconstitutional in Texas and he does not see that changing in the next legislative session. The Texas Legislature meets only in odd-numbered years, so the next session begins in January 2027.

One additional legal thread remains open. Chicago-based class action firm Strauss Borrelli PLLC announced in early April that it is investigating Tempus Holding Inc. for potential federal WARN Act violations.

Federal law requires 60 days’ notice for mass layoffs at employers with 100 or more workers. No complaint has been filed as of April 29.

What to Watch Next

The civil forfeiture response deadline will determine how quickly the Lodge recovers its seized assets. If the state settles or drops the claim, the money comes back and player payouts can begin immediately.

If the state pushes for trial, the Lodge faces months of civil litigation. The no-bill weakens the state’s position considerably, but civil forfeiture operates under a lower burden of proof than criminal proceedings.

For US-based players looking for online action while the Lodge remains dark, ACR Poker’s tournament schedule for US players offers a full slate of guaranteed events with satellites starting from $0.01.

For ongoing updates on this story and the rest of the poker world, follow our ongoing poker news coverage.