Article
and Video Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By Stephen Hudack
Published
December 2, 2015
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Watch
VIDEO
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Elderly women at the Escondido Condominiums had their
weekly Mahjong games interrupted by a police action that led the
condominium manager to shut down the clubhouse for gambling.
Someone was suspicious of Zelda King
and her gang of gambling grandmas.
She and her octogenarian gal-pals gathered every
Thursday at the clubhouse of the Escondido Condominium
retirement community in Altamonte Springs where they
spent hours around a table overlooking the pool,
wagering on mahjong.
Then the cops came.
A snitch had ratted them out, authorities said. |
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"It's ridiculous," she said of the police inquiry into money
games at the Escondido Condominiums clubhouse.
The probe was prompted by a complaint to state
authorities about gambling at the condo complex, including
penny-ante poker, $5 bingo nights and mahjong games with
King and her friends, Bernice Diamond, Lee Delnick and Helen
Greenspan, a Holocaust survivor.
Mahjong, a game of Chinese origin, is played with a set of
144 tiles featuring Chinese characters and symbols.
"My neurologist, Dr. Oppenheim, said it's very good for the
brain," said King, who's been playing for 70 years. |
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The gambling gripe was forwarded to Altamonte Springs
police, who dispatched a detective to nose around the clubhouse where a
leaflet, taped to the door, announced Friday night "horse racing" — a
game in which a dice roll decides how fast your pony runs.
The note advised players to bring small bills.
Police provided the condo board with a copy of Florida's gaming statute,
which allows "mah-jongg" as well as pinochle, bridge, rummy, canasta,
hearts and dominoes — but forbids soliciting participants "by
advertising in any form..." That apparently includes leaflets taped to
clubhouse doors.
But police ultimately decided the small-stake games were harmless. They
apologized, said Bob Burnett, president of the condominium association's
governing board.
"A complaint was made and they had to check it out," he said.
But the condo board, unnerved by the police visit, immediately closed
the clubhouse to all games where money might change hands, including
Frank Muscarella's poker games — "We play for pennies," he said — and
the grandmas' mahjong.
"It was just until we were sure we were doing everything right," Burnett
said.
The state law says penny-ante games are legal as long as the winning pot
doesn't exceed $10.
King said neither she nor any of her friends have ever been arrested for
anything, but they suddenly felt like outlaws.
They tried to take their game underground, away from prying eyes.
King said they held one game at Bernice Diamond's house in Longwood, but
she got lost on the drive back home.
She fretted the condo board's ban would not only interrupt the weekly
games but break-up her gang.
"It's hard to keep a group like this together. Someone's always got to
go to the doctor, someone's always sick. We're all old. We're all on the
brink," she said, laughing.
Her daughter, Joanne Kane of Longwood, was upset her mom couldn't play
her favorite game in the community where she has lived for 13 years.
"I want my mom every day to have a good day," she said. "The money isn't
the point of the game for them. The most they can lose even on their
worst
day is $4. It's more of a social thing, a reason to get out of the
house. They have a ball together."
News of the gambling crackdown appeared on "Heritage," a Florida-based
Jewish news site. The story has since been picked up by the web-based
Huffington Post and The Times of Israel, an international news site for
Jews.
The women suddenly were famous international gamblers.
King said a friend kiddingly told her, "My daughter says I can't play
with you anymore."
As it turns out, the grandmothers' game was legal and the controversy
made them feel young again.
"If nothing else, we've gotten a big laugh out of it," King said.
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