Several local video poker sites under investigation

GEORGIA -- Curiosity caused phones to start ringing and tongues to begin wagging Wednesday afternoon as word spread around Dublin that law enforcement had descended on several convenience store locations around town

While calls were coming into The Courier Herald with such reports as “The Starvin’ Marvin’ has been robbed,” to “Were they selling bad gas?” to “Is it underage alcohol sales?” the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department Drug Unit along with members of the Dublin Police Department were in actuality descending on several locations that have video poker machines.

The officers served five search warrants on local businesses.

“These search warrants were the results of several months of investigation by the Sheriff’s Department narcotics unit,” according to a press release by the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department this morning. “The businesses were allegedly conducting illegal gambling operations commonly known as ‘video poker’.”

The press release shows the sheriff’s department has been receiving complaints about the machines for about a year from Laurens County citizens who have lost thousands of dollars playing these machines. The investigators targeted the locations where the most complaints had been received and were able to obtain enough evidence to believe that illegal gambling operations were in fact being conducted from the businesses. The investigators took their findings to the Dublin District Attorney Craig Fraser’s office and presented it.

After the district attorney’s office researched the investigator’s findings and recent court rulings on similar operations it was determined that case law now indicates it is illegal to simply possess the machines “even for amusement purposes.”

The Courier Herald also began receiving calls on the video poker machines last year with several local residents telling their stories about how the machines had cost them thousands of dollars. One father, in particular, said his son had been given a credit card for the purpose of purchasing gas for his vehicle. After he had spent thousands of dollars on the video lottery machines, the father discovered how the card was being used and that he was responsible for repaying the money. In another, case a husband claimed his wife had spent thousands, putting them deeply in debt because of the machines. Several other complaints were received at The Courier Herald for a period of a few weeks and the information was turned over to the sheriff’s department at that time.

The search warrants were executed at about 3:45 p.m. at the five locations causing quite a stir as passersby noticed the bright yellow crime scene tape roping off parking lots preventing entrance to the businesses.

One Cochran woman called The Courier Herald to say that her husband was in Dublin and was looking “at two stations right now that are being roped off” and she wanted to know what the problem was because he worked in the area and was not sure if the area was safe.

Sheriff Bill Harrell said more information would be released Friday on the arrests during the investigation.
The Courier Herald

News Added: 26 October, 2007

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