Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that two men were sentenced to jail today for operating an illegal poker club, known as the Runnemede Social Club, out of a storefront in Runnemede. One of the men also ran an illicit off-shore gambling website.
Thomas Rand, 43, of Williamstown, was sentenced to 270 days in jail as a condition of three years of probation by Superior Court Judge John T. Kelley in Camden County. Rand pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to a third-degree charge of promoting gambling, admitting that he and a partner, Ryan Dion, 33, of Blackwood, ran the Runnemede Social Club as an illegal gambling club inside a storefront at 707B East Clements Bridge Road. Dion pleaded guilty to promoting gambling on July 18 and was sentenced today by Judge Kelley to 364 days in jail and three years of probation.
Four other men who were dealers and cashiers at the club previously pleaded guilty to promoting gambling. Three were sentenced today by Judge Kelley. Nicholas Gibbons, 26, of Stratford, and Gregory Henkel, 42, of Haddonfield, were each sentenced to three years of non-custodial probation, and John Bahn, 28, of Aldan, Pa., was sentenced to one year of non-custodial probation. Gibbons’ father, August Gibbons, 63, of Stratford, is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 24. The state will recommend that he be sentenced to up to 364 days in jail as a condition of a term of probation.
The partners, Rand and Dion, profited by taking a portion of the money, or “rake,” out of the pot with each hand of poker played at the Runnemede Social Club. The club was open Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings into the early morning hours, and ran up to three Texas Hold’em, no limit poker games at a time. Rand also admitted that he ran an illegal off-shore gambling website from which he collected 10 percent of every losing bet.
“The only healthy thing about the purported health club these men ran was their profits,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “On the night we raided this illegal poker club in March 2014, detectives seized approximately $26,000 from the operators and players.”
The storefront for the Runnemede Social Club had a sign for the health club “Curves,” but inside were three regulation-sized poker tables, a “cash cage” where poker chips were purchased, and sofas arranged around a large, flat-screen TV.
The defendants were charged by the New Jersey State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice in March 2014.