2 Easton bars busted for gambling, with nearly $50K seized from 1, police say – lehighvalleylive.com

The Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement says officers conducted two gambling raids Wednesday in Easton, resulting in the seizure of video gambling machines and a hefty sum of money from two bars.

Enforcement officers around 10 a.m. Wednesday raided Easton Caf Inc. at 125 Northampton St. and Citizens Hose Co. at 839 Line St., state police said in news releases Friday.

From Easton Caf, officers reportedly seized two video gambling devices and $163. At Citizens Hose Co., officers took three video gambling devices and $47,996.52, police said.

Easton Caf did not wish to comment Saturday morning. Leadership of the nonprofit Citizens Hose Co. could not be reached immediately for comment.

Pennsylvania lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf in fall 2017 legalized some video gambling outside casinos, in an effort to close a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, but limited the machines only to qualifying truck stops. Other components of the expansion included online gambling, iLottery games and sports betting.

State police in 2004 seized six video poker machines from Citizens Hose, along with $6,577 cash, months after The Order of Fleas also on South Side Easton agreed to forfeit $534,000 in assets and pay $168,000 in back taxes for an illegal gambling scheme at the Fleas Club that took in $100 million over 10 years.

Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ConnorLagore. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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2 Easton bars busted for gambling, with nearly $50K seized from 1, police say - lehighvalleylive.com