Big difference between a card game and casino. Card games come in a wide variety. In Alabama it is illegal to gamble with a few exception, such as bingo, casinos own by the the Creek tribe, and the old dog track in Birmingham. Small games like a few friends play poker once or every other week and not much money at stake, no one care unless it is a ambitious prosecutor making a name for themselves to further their career. They go after the 30 or so people who show up once a week and drop thousands of dollars to the house and LE notice the vehicles, small crowd, or complaints of noise or traffic by the neighbors. In most cases it is word of mouth, or a sore loser. Hotel rooms are another location and invite only, for a few years I have been to them every couple of months years ago, 5000 to 50000 to get a seat and someone had to vouch for you, but those games were smart and knew how to grease palms, knew officers on patrol, manager the works so they never had problems.

Dix, your cousin didn't happened to live in Highland did he?