Michigan Lottery shuts down Coops Charity Poker Room in Ypsilanti
A charitable gaming business in Ypsilanti that was operating without a license was shuttered, the Associated Press reported.
Coops Charity Poker Room founders Matt Cooper, Garrett Cooper and Rob Oas are pictured together when they launched the Ypsilanti business in 2008.
File photo | AnnArbor.com
The business, Coops Charity Poker Room on Pearl Street in downtown Ypsilanti, opened in 2008 as charities sought alternative sources of revenue to fund their operations. The Michigan Lottery closed the facility, and the case has been turned over to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office for possible charges. The AP reported:
Business Review reported in 2008 that Garrett Cooper, his brother Matt Cooper and brother-in-law Rob Oas, started the business after attending a charity poker event themselves.The lottery said in a release that the closing of Coops Charity Poker Room caps an undercover investigation that began in early March and revealed that the hall was operating without a licensed charity. Ypsilanti police seized about $1,100 in cash and the poker room was closed.
"We looked around and said, 'We could do this as a business and we could do it better,'" Garrett Cooper said at the time.
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Comments
pieter scot
Thu, Mar 14, 2013 : 9:52 a.m.
Well, we are not sure about the whole scenario if they are culprit or not but if there is any fact in this news then being as a responsible poker room at Sacramento(http://www.capitol-casino.com/games.php) we strongly condemn these kind of illegal acts.
djm12652
Wed, Apr 7, 2010 : 1:32 p.m.
Posting a picture of the people that formed Coops without establishing that one of the people pictured is no longer involved is shoddy reporting at the very least. annarbor.com is leading the reader to believe someone is involved when they are not. Please explain or update story.
Nathan Bomey
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 3:23 p.m.
This story has been updated to reflect a new version of the Associated Press story. The AP now says that the case has been turned over to Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office for possible charges. The AP's original story said that charges had been filed, though it did not name the defendants.
xmo
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 12:53 p.m.
we have medical marjuana, why not medical gambling? Could be a good source of revenue.
John
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 12:50 p.m.
There is a moritorium on opening one of these rooms so there isn't any way they will be opening a new one any time soon. Also, this whole story was leaked from the Charitable Gaming Commission to a few of papers and bloggers when it shouldn't have been. Coops wasn't taking any cut of the money whatsoever, they were letting players play in their room and were dealing for them just to keep players coming in and enjoying themselves until they could get a charity in there. They got the idea from the Charitable gaming commission themselves and even better yet, they had it signed off on by the County and the Ypsi police department, you know, the ones who raided the place with the State employee. The money confiscated was from all of the players not the room because they weren't taking any cut. This person writing this article did no research into the situation what so ever and even worse, one of the owners, Rob Oas hasn't been a part of Coops in over a year and now his name is in this article and it just looks bad.
Don
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 11:38 a.m.
The Michigan Lottery is a tax on poor people. How many millionaires do you see playing these games?
genericreg
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 11:13 a.m.
They needed an undercover investigation to determine that there was not a license? Could they have instead... checked the big database of licenses? Or walked in the door and looked for the license posted on the wall? Or asked them for the license? Sounds like there is more to the story.
Cash
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 10:07 a.m.
Protecting the revenue stream that the Michigan State lottery brings to the state coffers...go after some locals who run a small time poker tournament. Big Brother rules. Love to know how much this investigation cost the taxpayers. Frankly I think there are crimes more deserving of the time of the police.
dading dont delete me bro
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 9:42 a.m.
ypsilanti pd? beind a STATE regulated gaming license, shouldn't the msp have done this? our city's resources are stretched enough already...
dading dont delete me bro
Tue, Apr 6, 2010 : 9:40 a.m.
"The Charitable Gaming Division will no longer issue licences to charities that want to hold gaming events at the facility." so they will move to another location...and change their name. doh!