ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — Tucked behind a Target store and sharing a strip mall with a dry cleaner and a hair salon, Mr. Peter's Banquet Hall is about as removed from the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip as anyplace in America. But the drab digs were abuzz one recent weekday with the sound of riffling poker chips — nearly $58,000 worth — as 478 players bet and raised, bluffed and folded.
When the doors closed at midnight, the National High School Gymnastics Coaches Association, the nonprofit group behind the makeshift casino, was up $3,820.42.
"I won — and I did my contribution," said Mr. Long, who wore aviator sunglasses at the poker table like many professionals on television do. "You feel good walking out."
Rushing to cash in on the Texas hold 'em craze, charities from local churches and community groups like the one here to giants like the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and...
