Local and Georgia officials conduct gambling raid at two Albany … – The Albany Herald

ALBANY Multiple law enforcement agencies raided two Albany businesses Thursday, charging owners with violations of Georgias commercial gambling laws and arresting Naineshkumar Patel, 40, and Michael Grier, 54.

Both individuals have been charged with felony commercial gambling.

More than 30 officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Commercial Gambling Unit, the Dougherty Judicial Circuit District Attorneys Office and the Albany Police Department raided the BP Station located at 1817 North Slappey Blvd., the Shell Station at 2824 Old Dawson Road and a residence in Lee County, simultaneously and in coordinated fashion, according to the GBI.

We launched a raid at two Albany businesses and one Albany residence today, said Cindy Ledford, Special Agent in Charge of the Commercial Gambling Unit. The investigation has been going on for a little over a year. We were brought in by the district attorneys office based on some complaints from citizens about these locations making cash payouts from commercial gambling machines.

Reports indicate that both businesses were licensed to operate coin-operated amusement machines. However, in Georgia, state law prohibits cash payouts for winning credits. Credits may only be redeemed for lottery tickets and or store merchandise.

We came in to work with the district attorneys office, and its been a year of undercover activity with repeated documented violations of Georgias gaming laws, said Ledford.

Ledford confirmed that both stores, as well as the residence in Lee County, are owned by Patel.

Both stores raided today were owned by Patel. Grier was an employee, said Ledford. Both will be arrested for commercial gambling, which is a felony charge and carries a penalty of one to five (years imprisonment) and up to a $20,000 fine.

The Albany Herald was granted access to the crime scene under the strict agreement not to take photos of undercover agents faces or tag numbers.

We have a whole squad of undercover agents, and we have to protect their identities, Ledford said.

According to Ledford, throughout the past year undercover agents visited the stores multiple times, played the lottery machines and received cash payouts. But with the launch of Thursdays raid, all machines at both locations were shut down by lottery headquarters.

The machines have been turned off, because the lottery has already been here, said Ledford. They can work those machines remotely from headquarters. They literally hit a button, and it turns the machines off. All of the machines have been opened and marked as evidence, but the machines do not actually belong to the store owner and will not be seized. They belong to a master license holder. There is a master license holder, and then there is a location license holder.

The master owns the machines. So he will likely come get them and probably move them to another location. Technically, he (the master license holder) distances himself. He puts them with the store owner and says, I dont know what they are doing with them at the store.

Ledford pointed out that there were signs posted at both stores around the machines explaining that no cash payouts were permitted, but the yearlong investigation gathered evidence that suggested otherwise.

There are plenty of signs posted around the machines that say, We dont pay cash, said Ledford. Based on our undercover agents that came in, they do.

According to Ledford, violations of the state commercial gambling laws are widespread. The raid in Albany is not an isolated incident, the agent said. Only last year, Ledfords team conducted a similar raid in Dawson which included four convenience store businesses, one motel and one residence, a gambling operation that netted more than 11 arrests.

This type of gambling violation seems to be everywhere, Ledford said. It is all over the state. It is not just a problem here in Southwest Georgia, it is everywhere. Every store that these machines are in, the incentive to play is cash, as opposed to store merchandise, which is what you are supposed to redeem credits for. If you win, you can legally get lottery tickets, fuel, snacks, store credit, no alcohol or tobacco though. But they have to be redeemed here on the premises. Of course, if you pay cash, more people play, but it is illegal.

This can be very lucrative for an owner who gets a percentage of the proceeds that go into the machines. The owner splits the proceeds with the master license holder.

Ledford said her team has been very active investigating illegal gambling activities all across the state of Georgia.

We have pretty much been across South Georgia this week, she said. We did stores in Midway on Tuesday; yesterday we were in Valdosta, and today we are in Albany. We are just rolling on.

The two locations in Albany, according to Ledford, earned more than $1 million per year.

These two stores were making well over $1 million per year cash in the machines, she explained. Now let me clarify that. The lottery hooks their machines up to a central reporting system, so they see every dollar that goes into a machine and they see every credit redeemed. So if this owner brought in, I dont know the exact total, I know it was over $1 million, but lets just say $1 million. He may have redeemed $500,000 worth of credits. That then leaves $500,000 for them to split. This is over a 12-month period, and I dont know the exact numbers off the top of my head from these two locations, but it is a lot of money.

More arrests are pending, according to Ledford, as well as the seizure of any property or monetary assets gained from the illegal use of gaming machines.

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Local and Georgia officials conduct gambling raid at two Albany ... - The Albany Herald