New Jersey Probation Officer Facing Time After Guilty Poker Plea

Anyone who thinks that the game of poker is only for degenerates will get an awakening from this story. A New Jersey probation officer found the money too great to turn down and now will be facing possible jail time after running an illegal poker operation.

Gordon Ernst Jr. was released from jail on $25,000 bond on Wednesday after pleading guilty to running a poker game out of a gambling parlor on Delsea Drive in Westville, and will be free until sentencing on January 14, 2008. The sentence carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

The poker enterprise was run by at least five people, with Ernst admitting that he owned, managed, financed, directed, or supervised, all or part of the gambling business.

The operation was said to have been taken place between March 2006 and June 2007 before police went into the establishment with a search warrant and seized various gambling paraphernalia that was used in conjunction with the illegal poker operation.



2007-10-11