Police are searching for three suspects responsible for a Christmas Eve break-in at Johnny’s Social Card Club in Wichita Falls, Texas. Authorities say the suspects broke into the property about 3:45 a.m. and stole from an ATM machine inside the building.
The five-table poker room opened in September and security video showed three masked men forcibly entering the facility. Police say the suspects arrived in a gray Kia and investigators are seeking help from the public in identifying those involved.
The card room is a small business owned by partners Brian Wessling and Andre Butler. Westling was supervisor in the poker room at nearby Apache Casino in Lawton, Oklahoma, and Butler previously worked there as a dealer. The two men eventually came up with the idea for running their own poker room in Wichita Falls, about 45 minutes away, in 2021.
When Butler retired recently, the timing seemed right to put their plan into motion. Wessling describes the room as a laid-back venue with room to grow.
So far there have been no arrests in the case and the property has since added further security measures.
“The detective thinks that the guys were from out of town,” Wessling told Card Player. “There was a pretty good amount of damage and they took cash from the ATM. It’s unfortunate that we had to learn the hard way, but we’ve beefed up security.”
Texas cardrooms have been targets for criminals because of all the cash on site. In 2022, Legends Poker Room in Houston was the site of a failed armed robbery attempt that involved a security guard tackling a man with an AR-15. The same room was later shot up a few months later and despite the burst of gun fire, no one was injured.
Another security guard was shot seven times at Texas Card House while defending patrons from an armed robber, and a home game in San Antonio saw another shooting take place.
In April, a New York home game was the target of a robbery in which one player sustained a gunshot wound and left one man shot and burglars making off with cash, cell phones, and jewelry. The game had been robbed in 2010 as well. Also last year, a man robbed a gambler at a slot machine by using his pet snake as a weapon.