Crime analyst warns unlawful gaming rooms gasoline violence, prey on susceptible residents

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office lately shut down an unlawful playing operation on the town’s Northside, arresting and accusing two individuals, who have been staff on the illegally run enterprise, of retaining a playing home.

The raid came about Friday evening at a enterprise on Haverford Road, the place officers executed a search warrant on Oct. 3, uncovering a number of unlawful playing machines and seizing money from the premises.

The machines have been confiscated and handed over to the Florida Gaming Commission on the scene. According to arrest reviews from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), the vice unit has noticed a rising variety of unlawful playing institutions in Duval County.

These operations typically disguise themselves beneath names like “internet cafes,” “adult arcades,” or “internet sweepstakes,” and generally haven’t any seen signage in any respect, making them tough to determine.

JSO additionally famous a troubling improve in crime linked to those unlawful playing venues. Patrol officers have responded to varied incidents at these areas, together with homicides, shootings, robberies, and burglaries. Because these companies typically maintain giant quantities of money on-site, many make use of armed safety guards, which provides to the chance of violent confrontations.

Tom Hackney, retired JSO director of investigations and present crime and security analyst for News4JAX, emphasised the risks these underground gaming rooms pose to the group.

“It’s a cash run operation, and because of that, it’s a prime opportunity,” Hackney stated.

Hackney’s warnings are grounded in actual incidents the place robberies inside recreation rooms have escalated into deadly shootings. These violent episodes have been among the many causes Jacksonville metropolis leaders banned gaming rooms involving “internet cafe” sweepstakes or slot machine-style gambling in Duval County back in 2019.

Despite the ban, Hackney defined that unlawful gaming rooms proceed to function as a result of they continue to be extremely worthwhile for these operating them. “For a very small investment, they’re able to do these predatory things,” he stated.

He described these operations as predatory as a result of they aim low-income neighborhoods the place residents might repeatedly spend their hard-earned cash hoping to strike it wealthy.

“That’s where they choose this because those are the good victims. Those are the victims who come in repeatedly and continue to put their hard-earned savings into this,” Hackney defined.

Adding to the hurt, Hackney stated most of the playing machines present in these underground operations are rigged.

Following the current raid, metropolis code enforcement issued a stop-work order after discovering unpermitted electrical work contained in the constructing, which posed a security hazard.