Last week the Baltimore police charged 80 poker players with illegal gambling in "the biggest gambling raid in the city since the Prohibition" as a police spokesman described the event. This week prosecutors dropped all charges, because the police quoted the wrong statute when charging them.
On November 2 the Baltimore police raided a local club called the Owl's Nest, resulting in the arrest of 95 people (including 80 poker players) and the confiscation of huge quantities of cash, chips, card decks and liquor. The club hosted a satellite tournament for the World Poker Finals which is taking place right now at Foxwoods Casino.
At the time Sgt. Craig Gentile, who was in charge of the raid, proudly told the press the raid was "the biggest gambling raid in the city since the Prohibition" and also "this was a planned and well-orchestrated raid [...] everyone that was there cooperated."
The "planned and well-orchestrated raid" turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment for the Maryland authorities, because this week prosecutors dropped all charges against the 80 poker players who were arrested during the raid. Apparently the Baltimore police charged the players under a wrong subsection of Maryland law that reads "a person may not keep, rent, use or occupy a building for the purpose of gambling". The correct subsection the police should have used prohibits a "bet, wager or gamble".
Assistant State Attorney Patricia Deros commented: "Had these 80 players been charged appropriately, we might have taken a different route and prosecuted them." At this point the charges against the remaining 15 people arrested during the raid (dealers, waitresses and organizers) have not been withdrawn.