BY TOM SOMACH

A professional poker player in San Antonio, Texas, USA, who was arrested for running an illegal online sports betting operation, has struck a plea deal in the case and will forfeit more than $2.2 million, the Houston Post reported.

Richard Henry Lee, who placed sixth in the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, on Tuesday entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of keeping a place for gambling, the Post reported.

Four of Lee’s employees in the bookmaking operation also entered similar pleas, the newspaper reported.

Lee and the employees will give up 80 percent of the money, or $2.5 million total, that San Antonio police seized in raids last year, the Post reported.

Police called Lee’s home the “nerve center” of the sports betting operation, named him as the bookie and raided his house as part of an investigation into a sports betting website that pretending to be offshore, the newspaper reported.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Lee said. “Now I need to go win another poker tournament.”

One of Lee’s lawyers, Alan Brown, said the money Lee is giving up was from the nearly $2.7 million he won at the WSOP, the Post reported.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.) =A0