Poker Games Magnet for Gun Toting Crooks

Poker games may no longer be safe.  Forget the authorities busting in your door, now players must contend with the fear of being robbed at gunpoint.

A rash of robberies have occurred in recent weeks expanding now into Alaska.

Fairbanks, Alaska was the scene of the latest poker game robbery.

The Associated Press reported that Fairbanks police are looking for three men who robbed a group of poker players at gunpoint during a card game.

Police Lt. Matt Soden said the men entered a suite at the Caribou Building late Monday and demanded money and valuables. One of the six poker players was outside the suite when the robbers arrived. He was hit in the face with the butt of a handgun and forced back inside.

Two of the robbers had shotguns and the other had a semiautomatic pistol.

The robbers got away with cash, cell phones and a laptop.

Gambling911.com has been reporting extensively on the recent surge in crimes targeting these poker games. 

This past Sunday morning, poker players found themselves on the floor with guns pointed to their heads during a game in Portland, Oregon. 

 "They were all wearing black and had masks covering their faces," one of the poker players told Newschannel 8's Wayne Havrelly. "One of them hit me in the back with a shotgun until I was flat on the floor."

The violence seems to increase with each account and many fear it is only a matter of time before one or more of these poker players end up dead.